Autumn has arrived

Today is the first day of autumn and I live in Las Vegas. Trees are still green and from the feel of the weather there won't be a freeze anytime soon. That means the trees will stay green for some time to come. It's this time of year that I miss Oklahoma and the leaves turning from green to orange and yellow.

Of course, when the leaves turn that means more work because the leaves start falling off the tree. Then you have to rake them, put them in plastic trash bags and sit them on the curb for the crews of the garbage trucks to pick up. When I was a child, my grandfather burned the leaves, which fell off his cottonwood tree. However, burning leaves isn't done anymore.

I don't miss the smell of burning leaves as much as I miss the beauty of fall and the leaves turning all sorts of beautiful colors. After the leaves changed then you waited for the first snowfall of the year. You hoped that it would snow on Christmas because a white Christmas was beautiful.

I was born on a snowless Christmas Eve, eleven minutes before midnight. That sounds like a good idea for a Christmas poem. I know it isn't even Halloween or Thanksgiving but it isn't too early to think of Christmas poems.