The Last day of Winter in My Garden

Mud Bath in Te Puia, New Zealand

Geizer, Te Puia, New Zealand

Te Puia Rainbow Geizer, New Zealand

Protestor's Falls, Night Cap National Park, NSW

Echidna in Dunoon, NSW, Australia

Monitor Lizard at Protester's Falls, NSW, Australia

Night Cap National Park, NSW, Australia

Fedor Tutchev

AUTUMN EVENING

There is a wistful charm, a tenderness,

Mysterious and soft, in autumn's even:

The trees in weird and brilliant garments dress,

The gory leaves to whispered talk are given;

Above the sad and orphaned earth the skies

Lie veiled and bleak, the sun's departure mourning,

And gusty winds with sudden anger rise,

Of pending storms the grim and  chilly warning...

Fatigue, decline, and - over all - the worn

And wasting spirit's smile, doomed soon to vanish,

That lights a sufferer's face and that is born

Of modesty, the godlike pride of anguish.

1830

Fedor Tutchev

*  *  *

There is a spell in autumn early,

One all too brief, of an enchantment rare:

The nights are radiant and pearly,

The days, pellucid, crystal-clear.

Where played the sickle and fell the corn, a mellow,

A warm and breathless stillness reigns supreme;

Spanning the brown and idle furrow,

A dainty thread of cobweb gleams.

The birds have flown, we hear no more their clamour,

But winter's angry winds not soon will start to blow -

Upon the empty fields there pours the azure glow

Of skies that have not lost the warmth of summer.

1857