Leafchasing

Japanese maple, Queenswood Arboretum, October 19th 2008; worried, delicate, silent.

I asked myself the other day 'why are you keeping a seasonal journal?' I don't really know. All my other online journals - spring 08, winter 08/09, and summer 09 - as well as the written journals, have sprung from my first autumn journal, nearly three years ago. I have always loved the autumn more than any other season, and loved the idea of recording the season's changes in journal form, but beyond that I think the only reason is to record the changes I see, to make myself more aware of what is happening around me.

The Americans call it 'leafchasing', the journeys across the States - especially the New England states - following the colours, tracking the season's movements, finding the best trees. Finding a tree in autumn colour attractive is linked to my ideas of beauty, but like beauty it is elusive and ultimately unattainable; beauty cannot be held, cannot really be touched or felt, it can only be seen. I find myself thinking at this time of year about the millions of turning leaves that - even in this country - nobody will ever see.

To Queenswood Arboretum at the weekend, a favourite place, 40 acres of woods between Hereford and Leominster. There is an autumn garden there, an area planted for leaf colour. And some of the maples were astonishing, bursts of yellow and crimson, peach and gold. The photographs don't do them justice, partly because it is atmosphere that makes experience; the cold afternoon, the fading light, the fresh air.