Fall in Ireland

For the last few lucky weeks, winter has stayed gloriously away and autumn continues to crane its neck further and further into November. Photos taken while out walking (Newbridge,Co Kildare, Ireland) evoke Autumn by Northamptonshire poet John Clare

A russet red the hazels gain,

As suited to their drear decline;

While maples brightest dress retain,

And in the gayest yellows shine.

                                       And I do love the varied hue,

                                     And I do love the browning plain;

                                    And I do love each scene to view,

                                    That’s mark’d with beauties of her reign.

O while my eye the landscape views,

What countless beauties are display’d;

What varied tints of nameless hues, —

Shades endless melting into shade.

Tis lovely now to turn one’s eye,

The changing face of heaven to mind;

How thin-spun clouds glide swiftly by,

While lurking storms slow move behind.

Beneath a yellow fading tree,

As red suns light thee, Autumn-morn,

In wildest rapture let me see

The sweets that most thy charms adorn.

Beside the brook, in misty blue,

Bilberries glow on tendrils weak,

Where many a bare-foot splashes through,

The pulpy, juicy prize to seek:

And the swans obliged with a "Bottoms up" to winter (needless to say, that's not a  John Clare line)