John Everett Millais had a passion for beauty and it’s ugly step sister–death. Always with beauty comes the sad acknowledgment of its fleeting nature. Oh, well.
These girls are gathering leaves . . . to BURN them. But the environment, you say! Burning leaf parties used to be fun in the old days. I guess parents were pretty stupid back then. I mean, those dresses were bound to catch on fire and where were the adults and the smores and the constant shoving of the kids away from the flames? Where was the hand-ringing about global warming?
Did you know that when people were afraid of global cooling they proposed an end to leaf burning? Now leaves are blown into plastic bags and tossed onto land fills. Of course some people compost . . . but for a kid what’s the fun in that?
Beauty and fun are fleeting things indeed.
“Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean.
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking on the days that are no more.”
Tennyson
FUN LEAF LINKS:
Bring back leaf burning to end global warming!
The old ritual of leaf burning
You too can own burnt leaf perfume!
Author Adrienne Morris 
7 responses to ““Not everyone has your passion for dead leaves.” Jane Austen”
I do wish someone would come and gather mine
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I thought I’d be a good girl last year and built a big mesh tower to save leaves in for composting in my garden. I spent the day raking and cursing raking as my husband busied himself with other things in the garage. We had tons of leaves and the tower was really tall. Finally my husband asked how I was going to pull the wire off in the spring. I never answered the question and so we just have this big leaf tower in the front yard.
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I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Tennyson. Thanks for the reminder.
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We usually have at least one leaf gathering, pile jumping, clump throwing extravaganza every year. And we rake. I hate leaf blowers.
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Ah indeed folks were much more rugged then and the better for it i think.
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On this we can agree. Thanks for stopping by.
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He he! Don’t worry it won’t last! Good blog. I had to pull myself away from reading more, as I had other tasks to do. That’s rare.
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