As we bask in a surprise Second Summer, the leaves are carrying on just as if it were an Actual Autumn. The temperature be damned, they seem to say: This is no False Fall. I expect they’re right. There are rumours of an early start to winter in these parts.
The leaves seem to be turning colour just a hair earlier than their long-term average. Could that be related to an early winter? Dunno. Is it even true? Dunno. Does anyone measure the onset, progress, and completion of leaf-peeping season with any rigour? You guessed it: Dunno. I do know that it would not be a trivial task and that I’m happy to have a general impression of timing and to enjoy the leaves, however and whenever they appear. After all, what choice do I have?
A weekend at the lake gave me more opportunities to enjoy taking too many leaf pictures. Most were as-found. Candid. Au naturel.
A few were staged, but brilliantly.
This visit also allowed our car to practice its camouflage skills. I think it’s getting quite a knack for it.
Back at home, our other car did its best to participate in the Reflections Games. Here’s a case where a little staging–just wiping the dust off the sun roof–would have been entirely in order. Maybe next year.
You got a nice display. I was at a cottage up the river a bit a couple of weeks ago and there were some nice colours developing but it was still a bit early.
However, the huge Norway maple that shades the front of our house and usually gives us a lovely show in the autumn, is still mostly green but starting to drop a lot of dried brown leaves. Any colour on the tree is just a sad bit of yellowy brown at the ‘edges’. Since most of the leaves are still on the tree I’m still hoping for a late show of colour.
Marion – I’m seeing more faded leaves than makes me happy, but there are still some shows of colour. I hope your Norway maple comes through for you.
My theory is that some well-timed rain brings out the colour. We were set for a drought-induced brown-and-yellow fall until significant rain fell for a day and a half. The reds sprang into maple leaves, the yellows brightened, crimson and rose tinted various vines and bushes. The effects lasted a couple of days until leaves fell in droves. A few deciduous trees remain green, as if the drought pushed them into an emergency mode. The summer heat this week adds to their confusion, while their neighbours are stripped and bare. Perhaps this is a climate change. I have heard that October will be unusually warm and that winter may be slow to arrive, more like Virginia than like southern Ontario.
Laurna – I find the biology a little confusing and this makes me think that there are several factors at work, interacting unpredictably (to my uninformed eye, at any rate). Sometimes it seems that both drought and abundant rain are bad for the fall colours, which seems unfair. But I would opt for a slow and warm winter, if anyone is collecting votes.
What beautiful pictures! The natural ones are breathtaking. The staged ones show our appreciation for dried leaves. Especially the last one – excellent symmetry.
Judith – Many thanks. It surely is a lovely time of year.
Those photos are inspiring!
Tom
Tom – 🙂 Many thanks. It was an inspiring day to be out in the woods.
It’s definitely a curious time of year.
We spent a busy weekend with lake friends too – helping take the dock out in preparation for the winter freeze-up and putting away the patio furniture before losing the patio to feet of heretofore unannounced snow.
One curious part was doing all of the chores, including piling the winter’s firewood, in shorts and t-shirt knowing that at the next opportunity our fingers might be numb. I only wished I’d had a terry-cloth attachment on my leather work gloves before a bead of sweat rolled onto my sunglasses during a face-down moment.
The strangest part was making this season’s snowmobile plans while sipping summer cocktails on the over-warm patio. But the colours were fantastic!
Vince – Thank you. That captures the transition-ness of the season beautifully. It seems that many people need the terrycloth feature that is useless to me. Maybe the marketers know what they’re on about. 🙂