The Beauty of Decay

We went for a walk around the neighborhood on a nice, sunny day a few weeks ago and took some photos of the leaves as they were first beginning to change color.

We also happened to encounter some creatures along the way, and they were nice enough to pose for us.

And speaking of creatures, we seem to get a lot of visitors in our back yard. All on the same day one day, we saw a hawk, some squirrels, and somehow even a cat managed to get through our fence. The hawks around here seem to like perching on our fence.

The leaves are in the orange/red/falling phase right now. They're beautiful, but it's been cooler and rainy, so we haven't gotten any photos recently.

Isn't it kind of interesting that most things that are decaying lose their appeal, but it's almost the opposite with autumn leaves?