So for as amazingly beautiful as Rwanda is - and it is strikingly gorgeous here - there is nothing to me like the fall colors of CO and DC. I saw this picture on Stephanie Williams Photography today and it just made so homesick.There are a couples weekends in CO, usually the start of October, when the aspen tress on the drive to Cripple Creek are amazing. You drive and watch them and it just takes your breath away. I always loved to go riding in the fall because you would be wandering through the woods, enjoying the best day God ever made, and bam! there would be a cluster of aspen trees - this shot of orange and goldenrod in the midst of the green of the pine trees. Or driving up the shelf road I remember there was the one spot, just after the turn of the for girl scout ranch when you could see a cluster of aspens on the mountain - they were only obvious during the fall when the leaves were changing and then winter because the green was missing from one section of the mountainside.
One Thanksgiving I stayed in DC. It was when I lived in the studio I still love and took some great shots off the balcony that Thursday - the city filled with red and deep yellow and this burnt orange. It did not seem real. It was God's beauty before it all died and DC got bitter cold and all I wanted was a snow day!
Maybe that is why I love fall. It's like the encore before the curtain call and the lights come back on and you have to face reality. I hate being cold and therefore hate winter. I don't ski - because it's cold and expensive - and would really rather be where it is warm (Rwanda anyone?). Fall is perfect! I love to go apple picking in the fall, and drink cider and eat things with pumpkin in them and wear fun dark skirts and long sleeved shirts and have a tiny nip in the air but not have to take a hat and gloves if you don't want them.
Beauty comes in many forms. I am sitting at the table outside on the deck of the guest house enjoying the incredible wonder that is Rwanda. It is the land of 1,000 hills and with the rainy season what was breathtaking in the dry season has become marvelous with the rain.
I got awakened by the rain on the tin roof yesterday. This amazing torrent at 5am that was my perfect moment - it doesn't rain like that where I come from. It just doesn't. I wanted to sleep but stayed awake telling myself to enjoy the moment.
Enjoy the last few moments of sun (they're getting feet of snow in CO tomorrow - can you hear my groan?) and rain and no traffic even though I am in the capitol. I have not heard a siren once since I've been here. I might even miss being called a muzungu everywhere I go (might!)
I will be home soon. 30 hours and counting...
