Loveliness of Leaves

                                                                                                      The almost November air is putting a crisp layer on the weather, and for many of us that means our trees are aflame with the colors of autumn.  The red and gold beauties are beginning to let go of their hold on the branches and make their flight to the ground below where they give themselves up to us to be raked into piles for joyful jumping and crispy, crunchy stomping.  Lovely indeed, these leave are.  In some instances, they are truly breathtaking.  And because the moment passes so quickly, and we are all about to move forward from the leaf phase of autumn to the turkey phase, it is nice to celebrate them here. 

In our Southern Louisiana climate, there are no fall leaves to speak of.  Trees generally hold on to their summer green until the first cold week and then fade into a nondescript brown and fall lifelessly to the lawn.  I was determined not to miss out on the autumn fun this year.  First we crafted some leaves of our own, like these.  We also had a great time using our backyard leaves to make some cute foliage friends.

But our favorite autumn leaf fun has to be that we enlisted some 4real friends to help us out.  Mary and her family were willing to help by sharing some of their beautiful Aspen golds with us.  We have used them relentlessly!  They have been math manipulatives, we have formed our letters with them, we have crafted with them, and we have examined them over and over again.  They joined us last night when we studied Colorado in our Monday night football unit.   Soon, we will use them to welcome November by making a banner that spells out November in various nature finds from our autumn nature walks.

Just as our leaves were arriving, Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight posted this post for poetry Friday.  We adapted her suncatcher craft by using self-laminating sheets and made some fun decorations for our dining/learning room windows.

Meanwhile, back in Colorado, Mary and her family were getting crafty themselves. 

Andrea and her family went beyond crafty and used their leaves for some real learning.  Don't miss these ideas, they are so cool.

Lots of families are enjoying the leaves right in their own front (and back) yards.  See how Marianne and her family made backyard clean-up fun.

And how Laura W. and her family are enjoying the the changing colors at their new California home.

Andrea shares her thoughts about how quickly fall's colors came and went from her yard.

When fall leaves aren't abundant in their yards, some families have found a way to use other foliage for some autumn fun, like Rachel and her gang.  Alice and Amelia found a great way to use those piles in their front yard. 

Speaking of Alice, who, like me, is deprived of natural autumn leaf glory, look what she created to have a little leafy joy.  God paints the trees north of here, but Alice did a fabulous job for a Southern gal!

Nori sent me a note that she had a post to share with us, but I could not make the link work.  Nori, would you please leave it in a comment here so we can all take a look?

And don't miss Elizabeth's post about how the colors of autumn at the Rotunda on the campus of U. Va. inspired a breathtaking poem.

So while most of us are beginning to move forward in our thoughts to turkeys and pumpkin pies, before you do, run outside.  Rake up a big pile of whatever is blanketing your front yard, choose a few of the best specimens for some crafting fun, then dance, jump, throw, crunch, and crisp the rest 'til your heart's content!  Leaves--how truly lovely they are!

Comments

[Maryan]

Fun Colleen! Thank you!

[Laura W.]

Colleen, Thank you for hosting this! I love the crafts you and your boys did from the Family Fun site...very cute...and you reminded me to check out that website more often. I also love your suncatchers!

Happy Tuesday!

[Cay]

Lovely, Colleen. :)
We haven't done any leaves yet so I enjoyed reading and seeing about all these ideas.