It may not officially be autumn yet, but it feels like it. Revelling in the distinctly autumnal briskness of the Manhattan air, I made a trip to Central Park to find out I was not the only one delighting in the cooler temperatures. Wildlife was out in frivolous abundance and I captured some of their antics on film:
Alright, I’ll come clean, one of those animals wasn’t from Central Park yesterday, but from a recent trip to the west coast. I’m not telling you which one; suffice it to say they are one of the most adorable animals I’ve ever captured on film. In the park, there were a few picturesque displays of late summer; the purple fountain grass, Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, looked quite lovely dancing in the breeze by the fountain in the conservatory garden.
Gently weeping willows and bullrushes against a backdrop of algae-covered lake water were also quite breathtaking, demonstrating the often underappreciated splendour of green on green.
The most dazzling display, however, came from the dragonflies skitting across the lake in all their iridescent glory.
I shall leave you with the first verse of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem ‘The Autumn’
Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them —
The summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform’d to stone,
Except your musing heart.
The Eco and the Id 