Underestimating Autumn by Nada Adel Sobhi - Prose

I have always viewed autumn as the tasteless season. A season with no character. Just grey skies, jittery weather; you never know if summer has ended or winter has started. You feel like you’re unsure what to wear and always end up with the wrong guess. You wear something light so it ends up being cold; you take a jacket or something heavy - because winter is coming right? - and it’s too warm.

But then I saw ‘her’ garden. I was struck, not by lightning, but by beauty, by colour.

Colours I had never seen in nature before. Colours no painter’s palette can ever bring to the canvas. Colours that breathe life into your being.

I have often read descriptions of autumn, where yellow and orange leaves litter the sidewalks. The descriptions were enticing. But that’s what I had often assumed they were: descriptions.

Photography by Cathy Ace - Her Garden of Inspiration

Here, in Egypt, there are no yellow-and-orange leaves. The dull greens fall and the trees become bare in autumn and winter. The sky wavers between grey and sunny, unsure what the day will bring, like it is trying to maintain a level of suspense. But as time passes, this suspense wears away and everyone is just bored.

I admit: I never liked autumn. The bland season. The prelude to the cold. Not until I had seen these images. I felt my eyes open.

I was seeing another - stunning - world for the first time, an enchanting one.

I stared at - and shared - the images before me. I wanted the world to see them, feel them, bask their beauty. I could almost feel a slightly cold breeze, smell the damp grassy garden, and see myself sitting amidst the flowers and trees, reading, writing, and above all living.

I look at the pictures again and understand why authors abroad write such beautiful books and settings. Because their views are different. Colourful. Vibrant. Alive.

Cathy Ace's garden in full colour and force. Photography by Cathy Ace

I know the garden will turn white with snow when winter comes, but for a moment I lived.

Writing by: Nada Adel Sobhi/Nadaness In Motion

Photography by: Cathy Ace (originally a cozy mystery author.) Find her on Facebook and Twitter. 

I saw these pictures by Cathy and the words just started flowing out of my mind and pen.