The Nature of Things

Autumn tiptoed through our doorways this morning, glancing fearfully over its shoulder in case summer was about to tackle it and pull it back. And it should well have been nervous. Temperatures have still been in the 90s this week and the high today is supposed to be 90 degrees F.  Maybe that doesn't sound too bad, but the humidity makes that feel like it is 97 degrees. To step outside, as I just did for about thirty minutes, is to quickly realize that autumn has not exactly taken hold yet. Still, the calendar says it's here and there are some autumnal signs in the land. Some of the leaves are beginning to turn.  Now, we don't get a lot of fall color in our leaves here, but a few trees, like the sycamore pictured above, will give us a bit of the feeling of fall. ( Full disclosure: That picture was actually taken a couple of years ago and it was in late October when most of our fall colors, if we get any, make their appearance. )  Crape myrtles, too, offer some reds and ye...

Enjoy!

It's fall, the Time of the Leaf Peepers.  It's the time when travelers spread out across the country to stare at deciduous trees and get drunk on the kaleidoscope of their brilliant changing colors. Up East, many of the prime leaf peeping areas, in places like Vermont and New Hampshire, were hard hit by Hurricane Irene and will have their normal big season of tourism disrupted by the damage that the storm did. In Texas, which is not a prime leaf peeping area and not really known for much fall color, a lot of the color in the forests this fall is like this: And this: The forests, including this small area behind my backyard, are full of dead trees. Thousands of dead trees.  Here, brown has become the color of autumn. But, in  other parts of the country , the changing of the colors has already begun and will continue and intensify in coming weeks.  In case you can't get away to enjoy those colors, here's a 60 second video just to give you a taste.  Enjoy!

The seeds of the Southern magnolia are ripening and turning red. That can only mean that autumn is almost here. Not a moment too soon!