Beautiful Fall Colors

I have always loved fall.  The distinct shift from the (sometimes) oppressive heat of summer, getting settled into school (which I, for some obtuse reason, have always enjoyed), wearing sweatshirts, anticipating the cold of winter, and of course the colors.  It has been my privilege to live in several places with distinct autumn experiences.  Growing up in Utah I loved how the Wasatch Mountains took on an orange tint as the scrub oak leaves changed.  Illinois and Virginia have blown my mind with the vivid colors of the abundant foliage--fantastic yellows, oranges, and reds.  Even in California I looked forward to that little bit of crispness that fall brought to the air, and even though the leaves didn't change like in the other places we've lived, colors seemed to be a bit more vibrant (probably the grass finally turning green again, after being brown and scorched all summer long).

The other day I looked out our kitchen window and noted some leaves changing color!

The next morning it was about 26 degrees when I left the house.  Twenty-six degrees...Celsius.  (Now honestly, if you didn't see that one coming from a mile away, I'm going to have to say that I'm just shocked.  That was a gimme, really.)  To spare any of you from looking it up yourself, 26 degrees Celsius is 78 degrees Fahrenheit.  Such has been our experience here so far that 78 degrees is actually pretty cool and feels downright pleasant.

In the spirit of sharing the beautiful colors of fall, I offer the following pictures.  I took these today in between sessions of General Conference when I went for a walk around our community with my beautiful children.  I know, I know, for most of the LDS world General Conference was last week, but because Thailand is 13 hours ahead of Utah watching it live is disruptive to sleep patterns, so here we watch it a week later.  And because we have some pretty rambunctious kids, we thought it best if we watched it at home over the Internet and spared everyone else in our ward the experience of our kids playing, whining, screaming, and whatever else it is their devious little minds could conjure up to disrupt the proceedings.

Without further ado, I present the following colors of fall, Thai-style.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one door down from our house.

 

 

This is a really cool-looking flower!

 

 

 

 

Maggie enjoyed taking pictures, too.  Ben just rode.

 

 

Love the contrasting red and green.  This is in our next-door-neighbors yard.

 

This is our side-yard.

 

Also in our side-yard.

 

Of course these flowers bloom all year long, regardless of the weather, location, or traffic conditions!

One last shout-out to my daughter Maggie, who actually took the first four pictures in this collage!