{"id":9871,"date":"2018-10-10T18:19:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=9871"},"modified":"2018-10-10T18:19:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T18:19:10","slug":"the-surrendering-of-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/10\/the-surrendering-of-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surrendering Of Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>BY LESLIE REGO<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9872\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9872\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9872\" src=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/sketcbook_1010-300x102.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"102\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9872\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leslie Rego, \u201cImage from my Sketchbook,\u201d watercolor and nib pen and ink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Thomas Hood (1789\u20131845), an English poet, wrote in his poem The Season:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoughs are daily rifled<\/p>\n<p>By the gusty thieves,<\/p>\n<p>And the Book of Nature<\/p>\n<p>Getteth short of the leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is an autumn day and I am walking amongst the brilliantly lit aspen trees. I am seeing that, indeed, there have been \u201cgusty thieves\u201d aplenty, because many of the trees that just a couple of days ago were resplendent with their autumn finery are now bare, the branches revealing themselves against the sky.<\/p>\n<p>Nestled in the fork of two branches in a bare aspen I spy a nest that was once concealed amongst the foliage. I peer into the cavity to see what materials were used to make the delicate home. I see many twigs interwoven together\u2014the larger ones used on the outside, the smaller ones reserved for the inside. Soft leftover seed heads, probably from last autumn, line the bottom, along with a fair amount of mud. Interwoven with the twigs are dried blades of grass.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Bront\u00eb wrote, \u201cEvery leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.\u201d A breeze picks up and the leaves drift down. The sun glints through them and it appears as if golden rain were falling. This is a vision of peace and resignation at the same time. The hillsides are lit up, the brilliant yellows surrounded by the deep greens of the pines. I am aware the gold will soon be gone.<\/p>\n<p>The tall dry grass is whispering to me, swaying with a gust of air. More leaves surrender to the inevitable coming of winter. An October day is like a beautiful dream, so real when we are in the midst of it, but all too brief. The \u201cBook of Nature\u201d is getting short of leaves.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Leslie Rego<\/em><em> is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, artist and Blaine County resident. To view more of Rego<\/em><em>\u2019<\/em><em>s art, visit leslierego.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY LESLIE REGO &nbsp; Thomas Hood (1789\u20131845), an English poet, wrote in his poem The Season: &nbsp; \u201cBoughs are daily rifled By the gusty thieves, And the Book of Nature Getteth short of the leaves.\u201d &nbsp; It is an autumn day and I am walking amongst the brilliantly lit aspen trees. I am seeing that, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-commentary","category-sketchbook-hiking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}