RDP Wednesday – COLOR
Autumn is languidly considering the possibility of dropping by any day now. The rhododendrons are blooming again … simultaneously with the ones in Sydney, Australia. How weird is that? And my roses are still very much in bloom.
The trees? Except for some older maples, meh. Lots of yellow and a bit of orange, but mostly, green. Lighter green than August or September, but still undeniably green.
I don’t think we’re going to have much of an autumn. Maybe we’ll get a few great days before it rains again and they all fall off overnight — which is what happened last year.
It’s the extra month of summer we’re getting. Summer used to be finishing up by late August and quite crisp by the end of September. It’s the nighttime cold snap that brings the leaves into full color and we haven’t had that. We’ve had a few chilly nights, but all of them have been raining.
And rain is the other thing the ruins autumn foliage.
We had to get to the medical lab this morning for bloodwork — me and Garry. Which meant no coffee or English muffins. I took a camera anyway.
I figured there might be a bright tree somewhere and sure enough, right across from the medical building, one huge — old and beginning to die — maple. An interesting mix of brilliant color and naked dead branches. I like the way these half-dead trees look. Good juxtaposition of color and nothingness.
So as of October 10, 2018, these are the colors. This should be full peak autumn. Typically, Columbus Day is peak foliage season. I’m not sure we will actually have a peak foliage season or even a couple of days of it, but here are the bright trees to date.
From New England to you. Color.
I think you have more colour than we do.
Leslie
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Only the maples. Everything else is solid green.
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🙂
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Same here – it’s taking its time
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Too warm and too much rain. Either is a problem, but both?
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we are gradually getting into. Time colours of Autumn. Since our roadworkers are now equipped with those blowing machines to pile up the leaves, there are no longer so many to be seen
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We don’t have enough leaves to blow, yet.
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It is late for you but even the more muted colours are lovely to look at. We get colours like this in autumn but in South Australia, it is mostly too warm for the deciduous trees and you don’t really see a proper autumn at all. It’s one of the things I love about Tasmania, we have four distinct seasons.
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Well, we are supposed to have four seasons too, but it’s not working out that way. Summer is lasting very late and the flowers aren’t sure when to bloom.
It is pretty in a pastel kind of way, but it’s not autumn we should get. To be fair, we don’t get great autumns. Some years, the weather doesn’t cooperate. The last REALLY good one was two years ago and before that, 2015 was great. In between, it was too warm or too rainy. And one year, we had a small hurricane.
In the late 1990s, Hurricane Bob his Martha’s Vineyard hard and stripped all the leaves before they had a chance to change, so instead of autumn, it was naked branches. One year, in the early 2000s, it snowed in September, so autumn was dismissed and a couple of years later, it snows HEAVILY in October — so again, no autumn. I always hope for a really great one, but they don’t always come as planned.
These very long summers are not helping.
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It is still mostly green down here but leaves are starting to drop. Not enough that I have done any raking. I like seeing the sprinkling of the brown leaves on the ground against the grass.
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That’s the way it is when it rains a lot in the autumn. The leaves turn yellow, then brown, then they fall. And that’s that.
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Lots of white up here.
But you know what’s crazy? Lots of the leaves are still green.
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We’ve had early snows too … and the trees were still green. It breaks the branches off the trees because the snow is so heavy.
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Apart from a glorious vine covering our stone pillars and walls of the great staircase, it’s still ‘summer’ here. Hardly a coloured leaf, hardly dry leaves on the ground…. strange times. And wonderful temps to sit in the veranda, have meals there, dry the washing outside…. gifts, very appreciated!
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Each season offers something spectacular but Autumn is pretty incredible with its diversity in colour, earthy smells and crisp air. I love the colours! We too have been enjoying an incredible Autumn cool crisp, sometimes cold going down to 2 but warming up to 14 15 with bright beautiful sunshine to go along with it. Last Autumn it rained, a lot! downpours and thunderstorms. We’ve experienced one so far and great weather since. Thank you for sharing such gorgeous pictures. I love seeing Autumn and how it chances the landscape.
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