The Lope: What Happened to Autumn?

Though Autumn's colors are giving way to the incandescence of Christmas lights, one must pay proper homage. Here are some photos from the last couple years.

The lawn sculpture above is in the Houston Whiteside District of Hutchinson, Kansas, and is most certainly based on the Bird Girl statue by sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson as seen on the cover of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Though not designed as a tombstone, one copy of Judson's Bird Girl was used by a Savannah, Georgia, family as a plot decoration in Bonaventure Cemetery and has been associated with the cemetery ever since. The red leaves behind belong to a burning bush.

A yellow poplar tree contrasts a blue sky in South Hutchinson, Kansas.

This past Thanksgiving I photographed this maple tree in my mom's front yard through her dining room window in Joplin, Missouri. Some views of it during an other Autumn and two ice storms can be seen here.

As Fall began, a trickle of red leaves fell into the clover of Union Cemetery in Kansas City. (another photo)

Every Fall, dragonflies invade my sweet corn patch. This day, there was one atop almost all of the 30 or so drying stalks. They are somewhat territorial. See how this one reacts by "posturing" when a rival approaches:

A drive along K-61 north of Hutchinson sometimes yields a good sunset.

Grace Christian Church‎ in Hutchinson has some nice maples out front.

The rest of these photos were taken at Hutchinson's Dillon Nature Center. This bronze eagle statue stands outside the visitors center. (the whole statue)