The leaves of North Carolina are glorious as they give up their lifeblood of green and prepare to fall.

I think about this fact more this fall than ever before. The leaves are giving the trees back their chlorophyll as they die.

The result is a crescendo of colors. Folks who do not glance at trees the rest of the year drive here to enjoy fall.

The leaves demand attention as they die. They have been there all along, mostly ignored.

The change makes us notice.

I have driven down this road hundreds of times and have never seen this house until heavy equipment removed the vines that kept it hidden for decades.

We had to take a closer look before more heavy equipment removed it. It is an intriguing liability on land newly purchased.

I knew the boys who grew up here as old men. They are now gone. I hope someone has saved the pictures and the stories.

We got one last look at a jewel that we never noticed before it falls.

I am not a fan of fast change. I am unsettled by the huge waves of development that are washing away the history here.

Every outing brings new lamentations. More houses, more people, more traffic…less trees, less nature…

This old house was built on cleared land many years ago, nature took that land back for a bit.

The vegetation engulfed the buildings, strangling the structures, erasing its human history.

This land will be changed again. We will be changed with it.

FLOW