Change

There's a silver birch tree just outside my window that I've been watching all year.*

For most of the year, it's looked much the same to me. Everything changed so gradually in the spring, and I forgot that it was once bare and white. It was green and unremarkable all summer long.

Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, it burst into a blaze of triumphant, glorious yellow.

I'm currently having to spend a lot of time in bed because of not-so-great health, but I keep having to drag myself into the office to look out of the window at this tree, because it's just so perfect. It will burn out in a moment, but right now it's spectacular.

Everything changes.

I love autumn. Change is dramatic. Winter is nothing like this - it's slow and hard and feels like it lasts an eternity. But autumn is fire and wind and change.

Just for a moment.

*Not a picture of the silver birch. This is a tree (whose species I am unsure of**) in a nearby park. I could not get a good picture through the window.

**I'm still learning the trees. Give me time. :D