THE APPROACH OF WINTER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE APPROACH OF WINTER

JEy Blsa Flavell, P.O. Box 313, Hawera age 16.)

It is a gloriously calm autumn day, pith just the slightest of breezeb; the jfcarm sunshine is slanting through my Boorway-< and across my desk, golden tend bright. Everything rejoices in rhe autumnal warmth and beauty, for the days lately have been much different from this —cold and stormy, a foretaste of winter.

Somewhere, high up in the sunlit air, a lark is thrilling gladly; through the Mne above drift shining cloudo, slowly, ipeacefully. Sabbath and autumnal ealm pervades the atmosphere.

On such a day as this, it is hard to believe that winter is so near, except that there is a feeling of drowsiness in the air, and a sense of fulfilment. The earth has completed' her tasks; the promise of the spring has been fulfilled in fruit, and seed, and now comes the season of rest. So many people dread the winter, seeming to overlook the fact that it is absolutely necessary that there should. be a season of rest and eold and rain. In winter all the waste created in the three other seasons is cleared away. Dead leaves are decayed and go to form fresh soil, high winds make the air clean and clear; floods in the rivers clear away, refuse on the banks; frost kills bacteria engendered by decay, as well as breaking up hard BoiL Meanwhile, trees are preparing fresh leaves and buds, and beneath the earth seeds are waiting and preparing for the spring and summer loveliness, no autumn fruitfulness and harvest.

Winter is not a season without beauty, es it is often thought to be. There is marvellous beauty in the russet-red of willows that brighten the countryside in winter time, and shaggy yellow chrysanthemums light the gardens like small Buns. There is great beauty in a frosty morning, too, and nothing can be more exhilarating than a swift rideythrough the crisp air, with the grass by the roadside ond the ferns among the hedgeroots stiff and white, as if they had been crystallised. Even the leafless trees, with their grey boughs forming lacy patterns against the sky, . have beauty, and give promise of the loveliness of coming spring.