AUTUMN BOUQUET

Forget my laments to bring back summer.  My attitude has turned along with the leaves.  I love Autumn!

Perhaps our nephew's wedding in Colorado had something to do with it.  Denver's picturesque foothills were painted over in russets, greens, and golds.  The bridal party's yellow ochres blended right in.  I wish I could post my shots from the wedding but I can't.  I will, however, share the radiant bride's brooch bouquet below.  Have you ever seen anything like it?

The Bride's Brooch Bouquet
I've never seen anything like it!

The estate where the wedding was held kept its historic charm.  Here's a glimpse of the mansion, The Manor House.  It was built in 1914 for a self-made millionaire, John Shaffer, whose modest beginnings were as a boot black.  His 28,000 acre cattle ranch used to surround this Manor House. Shaffer was also the editor-publisher of the Chicago Tribune and brought the arts to both Chicago and Denver.  This Manor House proudly entertained the likes of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft -- and now us!

The Manor House, Colorado
snapped from the car as we drove up the hill

But back to the wedding.  Our nephew, the jazz trumpeter, serenaded his Bride up the aisle with his originally-composed fanfare.  (I have a wonderful photo of him and his trumpet in the sunset.)  His band friends, mostly brass, encircled the guests on the hilltop.  So all those golden notes filled the brisk air, coating it in autumn sunshine.  To top it all, the vows were poems written or sung by the couple.  I just love weddings which truly reflect the couple's nature.

Our nephew and niece are decidedly outdoorsy, opting to give up the urban diversions of New York City, where they both attended graduate school, to move back to Colorado.  Fittingly, the pre-wedding Rehearsal Dinner was held at another scenic location, the Denver Botanic Gardens.  My camera lens fogged up on that cold, rainy evening.  But I did catch some amusing sights, like this fork in the road ...

Metaphor for life's choices?

... or this benign looking "Corn Maze" entrance -- which unexpectedly sprawls into an eight-acre corn field.  I lost my husband in it after he took some little kids in to the "maze".  They didn't surface for hours!  Luckily, there was cherry pie to reward the muddy, little troupers afterwards.  But perhaps, the kids thought it was one big adventure, and it was really just my husband who was concerned amidst the endless corn stalks.

Corn Maze needs to include "Bermuda Triangle" warning!

I took over 400 photos of family during this lovely excursion into Autumn.  I regret I can only share a handful, and not the most beautiful ones either.  This was my last look from the car as we drove to the airport, back to lush, green California.

Leaving my brother in-law's neighborhood
right by a horse ranch

Or so I thought.  Just today, I was out on a morning run in the hills. Amber leaves lined the dirt trail at my feet.  Autumn must have followed us home.

What is it like where you are?