The pads of fragrant water lilies live quiet summer lives in the shadows of their plants’ beautiful floating flowers, and then they die lonely deaths in the fall, weeks after the flowers have gone.
Some pads just darken quickly and slip submissively into the murky depths at this time of year. But others silently protest, curling and twisting on the surface and eventually turning into colorful abstractions that lie just below the water’s surface for days, shrinking but not sinking.
They become more interesting than they ever were; but, eventually, even they slip away like our memories of summer’s good times. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 3, 2023.)