The day after I mentioned being thankful for Autumn was my day off.  It dawned on me that I hadn’t been home at sundown in weeks (because the sun goes down while I’m driving home from work, and I’d had weekend activities lately).  When I looked out my window in the late afternoon, I was stunned to see the sun spotlighting the line of red maple trees on the hill on the other side of my lake.  They were at their peak of colorfulness and looked stunning. I had to go out!

Instead of my usual walk on the path around the lake, I walked through the corridor of bright and shining leaves.

These pictures only begin to give the idea of the amazing display.  All of the pictures I took here had me exclaiming aloud when I first saw how beautiful it was.  It sounds silly to say I gasped at the beauty, but that’s the truth.  What a tremendous blessing that evening was.  It felt like my own private astonishing display.

I lived in southern California from the year I turned 6 to the year I turned 26 — and to me, Autumn still seems like a miracle.

I don’t get tired of taking pictures of colored leaves (as my Facebook friends are well aware).  And I don’t get tired of looking at them.

So beautiful.  Such a blessing to get to live where the trees turn into glorious works of art!

This morning I was having my quiet time and wondering a little bit if I’m in the right place.  I’d been looking at photos from my time in Germany last night, and remembering what a boost I’d get from visiting castles.  Maybe I should try to go back?  But when I was there before, I had a husband and two sons to do the castling with.  People really make all the difference.

And here I have a super meaningful job and wonderful connections with people at church.  And I was thinking about lots of good things in my life right now, while staring out the window down at my lake — when the great blue heron walked right through my view.

He quickly went behind grasses, so I couldn’t get a picture of him from my house, but you can be sure I brought my camera when I went for my walk later.  And yes, I got my heron fix!

I laugh about the idea of a heron fix, but I have to admit that regularly seeing my friendly neighborhood great blue heron never fails to remind me that I have a beautiful life, here and now.