It's unusual that we haven't had a frost yet this fall. That means that although there is a major transformation going on outside, there are still a few signs of summer left--such as begonias and purple sage that have been blooming since June.
Several trees are bare and many only have a few colorful leaves left. However when I did a Second Look this week, I noticed that several trees are just starting to turn. That's what a second look is good for. Last week, I said that we were at peak or past peak as far as the color goes, well that applied to our maple trees. Then I realized that just as I associate the
smell of walnut trees with autumn, I have the strongest association of the changing colors of autumn with maple trees. Of course, I notice trees of all different colors and shapes, but I seem to judge what stage the color transitions are in by maple trees. Who knew that my mind was taking such broad concepts and filtering them into such small examples? I've always said that I wanted to study brain science some day and these examples are another reason why.
Here are a few things I saw this week
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| Since these begonias bloomed for so long, I never got around to replacing them with pansies like I usually do in the fall. |
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| Mums (They are further away from the heat pump that they appear.) |
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| Purple sage |
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| Now that some of the leaves are starting to fall, I can see that this sweet gum tree is hanging onto a lot of its balls from last year. |
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| The group of deer that were in the yard this afternoon were acting differently than normal. That may be because the typical group of just does was accompanied by this young buck. They were running playfully in circles and there didn't seem to be one standing guard like usual. I assume that this had something to do with mating, but I don't know. |
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| Mum |
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| Since the time change, I have to get up earlier to see sunrise. |
