Autumnal Thoughts morphing into winter

It happens every year - that brilliance of the dying season - and every year I think how can this autumnal season pull me in yet again, but  it does.    I seem to need to photograph it - talk about it - write about it sigh about it  - and try to clear those messy leaves up yet again, even when I know they will keep falling 
ad infinitum!
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I think I have at last found the answer, and it revolves around the word 'messy'!  Just don't say this silly word or even think it!!  

How could anyone ever think this golden carpet of fallen leaves - messy.   They are a gift!
As are the less spectacular brown leaves!  Although in this picture it's more about mists and atmosphere - the romance of the lone figure in the distance -  walking on into the dark unknown, towards the misty depths of winter.

Vitis amurensis - Scarlet leafed vine - often called Ornamental Grape because of the grape-like shape of it's leaves and twining climbing habit

The intricate twining of the  stems and branches fascinates - even though I know a lot of this twining intricacy will be pruned away during the winter prune and tidy up time.  The trunks will no longer be covered up by softer foliage and will be bare and subject to scrutiny. 
​Once the softness of the foliage of the ornamental grape is gone, it's amazing how noticeable  the forms of the trunks of the pair of native Lancewoods Pseudopanax ferox become.  Planted in front of the climbing ornmental grape, the ridges and lines etched by nature into the trunks of the pair of native Lancewoods become much more apparent as the P. ferox changes from it's juvenile state to it's more mature state.  A long time ago, I planted two of them - one either side the steps leading to my verandah and front door.  And they are both double stemmed from the base of each plant.  Often called the toothed Lancewood, P. ferox is distinguished by it's etched trunks and leathery narrow dark evergreen leaves.   

The shadows are longer and the mists are mistier.  And the red leaves are getting more sparse.  But the sparser they get the more like jewels they become.

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Vitis amurensis - Scarlet leafed vine -native to Manchuria and the Russian Far East.

The N.Z. native evergreen P. ferox is quite the opposite to the scarlet leafed vine - Vitus amurensis, which clambers through it in my garden.  Commonly called the Ornamental Grape, it is deciduous, with exotic beginnings as it is indigenous to the Amur River - a major waterway which defines the border between North Eastern China and the Russian Far East.

Who would have thought that the spectacular but humble Ornamental Grape had such exotic beginnings!   This is one of the lovely things about gardens and the plants we like to cultivate in them - they can come from all over the world and here they are flourishing away at the bottom of the world, in the opposite season to where they came from - happy as Larry!