Autumn in Amsterdam

Autumn is my favorite time of year.

Summer warmth starts giving way to a crispness that lingers in the air. It gradually wraps around each day dissipating after the early morning hours and returning in the early evening hours, like a blanket slowly being pulled around slight shoulders. The trees begin to give up their young, vibrant summer greens for their refined, middle-aged golds. The sun begins setting earlier and earlier, retreating for the long winter under feather blankets dressed as clouds. Warm breath hangs in chilly air like the mist that clings to the canals and fields at dawn.

Unlike the dazzling, new beauty of Winter, the striking, bright beauty of Spring, or the vibrant, loud beauty of Summer, Autumn's beauty comes quietly and heralds the end of things that were. It gathers its breath through months of increasing beauty and, when the heart is completely full of its wonder and warmth, all at once releases in a long exhale that signals fin. It is over. 

I was in Amsterdam last week with a friend, and decided it was time to share the beauties of this city in Autumn with my friends. The last two photos were shot while walking home from the bus in our very own sleepy little Badhoevedorp. Here are some of my favorites from the day: