Cool Rising- At West End Gallery, Corning
A moral character is attached to autumnal scenes; the leaves falling like our years, the flowers fading like our hours, the clouds fleeting like our illusions, the light diminishing like our intelligence, the sun growing colder like our affections, the rivers becoming frozen like our lives—all bear secret relations to our destinies.
–François-René de Chateaubriand, Memoirs of Chateaubriand, 1848
Just wanted to hear River from Joni Mitchell this morning. It’s a song that just gnaws to be heard sometimes. It’s not really a holiday song though its first verse begins in this season:
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
The video below is a Joni Mitichell endorsed animation of the song, which I wasn’t aware of it when it came out late last year. It certainy captures the mood and tone of the song. Lovely.
Redtree Times 
Interesting that the painting’s title seems to be going in a different direction than the quotation and the song: perhaps because this was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the painting and its title. The painting feels both light, and delightful.