Visiting a Lake

Mist hung in amongst the trees while passing forest after  leafy forest, the swirling grey moisture lightly glancing  the leaves of the eucalypts and a few changing deciduous deep reds & yellows, bright even in the low autumn cloud hanging in the air like a ghost's breath moving stealthily in & out the stillness. The road up ahead met the corner with an intermittant transient light, bouncing off the scattered fallen leaves that clung to autumn's imposing presence with a calm memory of past years. The many varying tree ferns stood unfolding, spreading with fresh tight young buds slowly opening over time's motion, unfurling & lengthening to reach out & catch the mists, falling hovering with regular tendency. The mountain road wound almost constantly, climbing nearer the top, closed in on both sides by mainly forests & the occasional house situated back from the road, hidden in the dense gardens adorning the hilly properties, with a mixture of natives & rhododendrons trees. The soil was iron rich, a dark red brown reaching down hills into wide valleys where tulip bulbs lie hidden awaiting the following spring.
Near where the road dipped down, a large property appeared indistinctly from behind an old diamond shaped wire fence with tall golden maples, ginkgos & ornamental cherry trees graceing the side of the road as they hung their arching branches resplendent, leaves dropping in a gentle autumnal breeze falling into carpets of colour. The pathway through the garden narrowed & fell steeply down a hill amidst many collected plants scattered far & wide, intermingled with tall mountain ash eucalypts & ferns. The long path continued leading down to an ornamental lake, surrounded by disorderly grown trees & shrubs spilling into the edge of the lake as the sun squeezed through the misty morning. Ducks shivered ripples on the lake, moving in a breath's glimmer of movement, gliding through the dark water in gentle motions dipping their beaks amongst the floating debris. Dry, deep yellow leaves uttered from overhanging trees & softly fell to the water, that sighed in the early morning mist of a breeze. The ducks ambled across the mysterious surface, picking at the water weed that collected, while king parrots & kookaburras flitted through the arching branches of tall eucalypts as daylight danced across the shadows that impaled themselves upon the water. The sun slowly breaking from the eastern sky glowing upon the mountain with soft shades of pink & blue, throwing the valley into a misty haze softening the forest trees that looked a quiet green. The mornings's dewy grass glistened like jewels catching the rising sun as they sparkled their way across the glistening surface & the early autumn crept its way into the day, with a whisper of a fresh breeze sighing in a weeping tree. The lake began to reflect the nearby trees that stole across its darkened shimmer & ducks straggled under a bridge to where an old wooden boathouse stretched its legs down into the dark depths at one end of its tranquility. The exterior slowly decaying while the walls echoed its history as they housed many small insects in their secret corners. Two square multipayned windows at the front misted & mysterious as the sun fingered its slow rays through one side, lighting the boatshed as a pale moonbeam penetrating its depths on a winter's night, the windows uttering a milkiness in the low filtering light.
A waterfall cascaded down a steep craggy bank & hit the rock pool at the bottom catching the low lengthening sunrays & turning the splashing spray into a riot of colour painted light. Two wooden bridges extended themselves over the grassy banks with their reflections mirrored in the water like dappled structures shimmering with darkened shapes.
As the afternoon sun shed its last rays creeping slowly amongst the tall forest trees, more leaves descended from above gently carpeting colour into the lake the consistency of spun gold fluttering from overhead in the autumnal air, tranquil now as their branches extinguished the sun, the mist returning, hovering damp between the trees as a frost filled winter's night.