In Maine, late fall is a time of subtraction. The golden glow of October has been replaced by the more austere pleasures of November. Gone are the brilliant autumn leaves, and instead we have a landscape that is marked by the dark bones of leafless trees.
However, I find trees beautiful during any season, and to me a tree with bare branches is spare and poetic, almost like haiku.
This picture of our friends’ home—a classic New England farmhouse—illustrates the beauty and sweep of the bare trees.
If you click on the picture, it will enlarge the photo, and you will be able to better see those bare trees and the red roof, which I absolutely adore.
Until spring comes, I will be admiring the bare trees whenever I go for walks.
Less is not necessarily more, but seeing the essence of the trees somehow brings me closer to them.
Notes From the Hinterland 
I love bare trees. The negative spaces among the branches (which are like fractals) are fascinating in themselves. There is a tree in the park where I walk that, in the winter, looks like a crown of thorns.
Yes! Fractals. Love the image of your park.
Fractal-like is perfect. Glad you are enjoying the season. Hope you have some pleasant weather for walking. Have a glorious holiday!
Thanks, Frank! Same to you.
🙂
Hmm. Austere, yes. I’ll be happier when the golden glow of October has been replaced with bare trees that are outlined against a pristine carpet of white. 😊🌨
Snow does add something. But still, there is something about November that speaks to my heart. Plus, it’s easier to walk when the roads are bare. 😉
You definitely win the point about easier walking!
I love your appreciation of the November landscape.
Thanks, Susan!
The picture is particularly good when enlarged.
Thanks, Tootlepedal.
I always love seeing the white birch throughout NH this time of year. When they have leaves, you can’t see them very much. That is one gorgeous New England house – wow.
Isn’t it? Makes my heart glad whenever I saw it. Especially that roof-line.
Your friend has a lovely home, looks well anchored in the landscape. 🙂
I agree with you about winter trees, they have lovely ‘bones!’
How I love them! Especially the sweep of bare branches against the sky. Now that I can walk without pain, I plan to go out for walks with my camera so that I can snap some pictures of them.
A beautiful photo, a beautiful season, and breaking news this evening. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Yes!!!!! Finally!
So true. Even in the last few days, it seems like we’ve gone from some leaves to almost none.
It can happen fast.
How lovely.
Many thanks!
A beautiful image and scene Laurie, I love seeing leafless trees with birds’ nests in the higher branches 💜
A fine tribute to bare, bony, trees
Thanks, Derrick! How I love them!
I love the bare bark of trees in winter… and your photo of the New England farm house is lovely … warm and inviting in winter, like your house. 😊
Thanks so much!
I have always enjoyed the bare trees, too. I love seeing how the branches and trunk are shaped. The bones, so to speak. Your neighbor’s farm house is lovely, and about how I would picture a New England farm house. 🙂
That house is classic New England, that’s for sure.
The leaves seem to have disappeared very quickly here, exposing the bare bones of the trees. I love the picture of the house and trees -just beautiful
Many thanks!
Oh, how pretty the tree are in the foreground of the lovely house. I love trees and all their changes during the four seasons here. I think the bare trees are very pretty when it snows.
Indeed they are!
Beautiful home, backdrop, and thoughts. 💚 Happy Thanksgiving 🍁🦃
Many thanks! And a happy Thanksgiving to you!
I’ve always loved the blazing fall colors, but along with everything being different this year I’ve now become just as fascinated by the beautiful bare trees.🙂
I always love seeing the bare branches against the sky.
We’re still waiting for some bare limbs, but a stormy (and wet) weekend’s on tap, so we may get our chance to join in your admiration — at last. I wonder if those limbs rejoice at being freed from the weight of their leafy burden for a time. Maybe they enjoy being able to shed that covering and swim in the wind!
“Swim in the wind!” Love it.
Sally Fitzgerald, who edited a book of Flannery O’Connor letters that I’m reading, applied this phrase to O’Connor’s life — “passive diminishment.” She says it means “the serene acceptance of whatever affliction or loss cannot be changed by any means.” It’s like subtraction in late fall … except we know spring will come again.
What a wonderful comparison!
The trees are bare here too. I think what I appreciate most is the changes. Today the trees are bare, it is cold and frosty but sunny, tomorrow may well be wet and grey. In a few months the spring bulbs will come and then the new leaves on the trees and so on. Always something different and something to look forward to.
I love the changes, too. In Maine, there are distinct seasons, and I truly love them all.
A lovely way to see the leafless look of trees in our northern climes. And I like houses with red roofs too.
Red is so pretty against the blue sky.
That is a gorgeous house, all those windows!
It surely is! Very Maine.
For some reason, WP won’t let me comment on the post just before this one, so I will say here that I was well chuffed that you liked Builders Tea, and thanks for the recommendation of Dash and Lily.
That happens sometime to me, too. I do like Builders Tea, and Dash & Lilly is a fun yet witty Christmas series. If you watch it, don’t think too much about the plot.