Taken With Autumn Leaves

I don't know if I've entered my second childhood early or what, but lately I have been really taken with autumn leaves, filled with memories of walking home from school on autumn afternoons, kicking my way through vivid ocean-like waves of fallen leaves.

I've started collecting them and bringing them indoors, searching for "that perfect one" -- the one without a blemish, without insect damage. They sit on my kitchen counter, drying out after a major soaking last night and today.

I immortalized some of them in a photograph by arranging them on my scanner.

And some I immortalized by taking a picture of them in the garden.

I need to do something with them soon. They turn crispy fast.