Autumn Sunsets

It was late.  We were driving the home stretch back to Washington, D.C., after a weekend with friends and relatives in Philadelphia. Burned out (as we usually are after weekends in Philly,) and cursing Beltway traffic, we kept driving.

When, all of a sudden,

There it is.  The autumn sunset.  The last spark of summer, dying and melting brilliantly, like a phoenix, giving way to the chilly fall.  For the meantime.

I tried to take pictures, but mostly what I did was gape, with my mouth open, at the beauty and cruelty of autumn.