As I walking down a windy path along the lakeshore, I was welcome by bright yellow leaves and their glittering line dance opened my moping heart. As I view the other side of the lake and passing boats, I feel so comfortable before I know it.

The scenery of this season looks breathtakingly beautiful and I wonder if it’s because I’m also withering as I get older. The colors especially before they fall match any background and they shine gently. I like the fact that they ride on the wind to fly away and rather than try to hold on to the branch. And, they leave themselves to the mercy of the wind. How nice!

In all ages and land, autumn must be the best season for sports because of the cool and mild climate. In Seattle, the rainy season starts in November and we can’t see the blue sky all day long. They have many boat races because the city is surrounded by the bay, lakes, and rivers. So, when it’s sunny, people go out to look at the races and enjoy the precious sun.

Jimi Hendrix, a descendent from American Indians, was born in Seattle on the 27th of this month in 1942. If he’s alive, he would have been as old as I am. I wasn’t very much interested in Rock’n’Roll, but I used to check his songs to learn about the best rock guitarist of all time. The E7#9 code used in the masterpiece “Purple Haze” is famous and I used to play the “Jimi-Hen” code not really knowing how good it was. Still, I would try to understand that it was a popular psychedelic sound. He made his debut like a comet, poured light on the rock fans all over the world, and was gone too soon. But, his flash will remain forever.

When I went inside the glass house of the Chifuly Garden and Glass museum (opened last year) I almost have an illusion that I become transparent. The showering reflected light made me feel as if they pass through my body and I felt strange.

Chifuly, a glass artist from Seattle went to Venice, Italy to learn about glass on the Fulbright program and how he has become a worldly renowned artist. One of his famous work is based on the image of the floating ball in the fishing net that he once saw in Japan.

I was quite surprised to actually see the very objects I saw in my dream. They were as high as a 3-story building and the petals in my dream were opening and closing exactly like this! I never had such an experience and I wasn’t a déjà vu. But, I saw them clearly in my dream and maybe I should also count this as a déjà vu. I should’ve made the sketch as I may have the power of prophecy.

It’s best to enjoy autumn through the five senses. Trees turn red. Sky is high and clear. I see the mackerel sky and a beautiful sunset. Voices of insects and the sound of dead leaves brought by the wind thrill me to the heart. I enjoy the smell of the burning firewood in the stove as well as feasts for Halloween and Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I taste the seasonal food with some wine. And I trace the soft blanket as I feel cold air on my skin. In this way, I enjoy through all my senses.

Behold the huge Alaskan king crabs and Dungeness crabs! They also have the frozen ones, but it’s the fresh one that tastes the best. The base for crab fishing ships is located around Seattle and from here they head to Bering Sea, Alaska. Usually, they decide the date for starting fishing in four months from October to January. You may have watched the documentary of the fishing on TV, but their labor on the rough sea is dangerous and tough. On average, one fisherman dies every week, but many people want to do it because of high income. Oh uncle Charlie went, too for some time. Anyway, there’is a variety of seafood on the market and it’s the best season for a fish lover (rather than meat lover) like me. Yummy!

I go out more often in the holiday season. And, when I bring a camera, I unconsciously check what I should shoot even though I don’t plan to shoot. When I find a subject, I automatically adjust my pace to it and I end up pressing the button.

People say I should go without camera if I don’t plan to shoot, but I feel the same level of uneasiness when I don’t bring my cellphone or I don’t wear my clothes. So, I downsize my equipment by bringing the light X1. However, it’s that occasion when I encounter sweet scenes that I want to capture with my main camera.

The signboard for the ballet Nutcracker has been put up and this makes me feel that another year has passed and I run into the theater. The last plays of the year I have watched have been Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Handel’s Messiah, or this Nutcracker. I haven’t decided what to watch this year yet. This Tchaikovsky’s ballet suit consists of 15 musical numbers and it was first played in December of 1892. It’s based on German writer Hoffmann’s fantastic fairy-tale “the Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and it has been played in this season because it’s a story of Christmas. In Seattle, the Pacific Northwest Ballet has been playing it in this holiday season. As we say “the autumn season for art,” there’re many art events everywhere in town and they make me feel richer.

This year, it became cold earlier than usual and the autumn sun was intermittent and short. So, I lost the timing to capture the leaves that I imagined. Still, the quiet scene under the cloud was also special and beautiful in its own way.