Ontario Autumn – Cynthia Reyes

Thanks to Hamlin Grange for his lovely photographs

Imagine my first autumn in Canada. I’d come here from Jamaica, where the trees and shrubs didn’t change colours — unless you counted the parade of blooms on shrubs like bougainvillea and trees like the poinciana.

Autumn in Ontario was a wonderland of changing colours and scents. The fresh smell of a cool fall day, the rain having come overnight and disappeared by morning, replaced by brilliant sunshine. The smell of wood logs burning in the fireplace. The blazing colours of the trees. And the shrubs. And the pumpkins.

Colours, glorious colours.

I had seen pictures, but the first time I beheld the autumn colours with my own eyes, I was astonished. When I realized that the leaves would soon fall and the maple and oak trees would be stripped of their glory, leaving bare branches and trunks behind, I wanted to find a way to stop time.

It’s many years later. You’d think I’d be used to the sight of Ontario’s autumn colours by now. But they still surprise me, still make my face break out in a foolish smile whenever I see what nature has wrought. Even on those days of awful pain and reduced mobility, when I am stuck inside the house, looking through windows, it seems to me that the air outside shimmers with a golden beauty.

I’m thankful for the sights and scents of the autumn. And glad to share with you a few scenes of the fall colours in Ontario. Enjoy!