October 31, 2007
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged autumn, nature
An eerie, filtered light reached over the landscape this morning, just before sunrise. Small soft and fluffy pink clouds, looking as if they had been displaced from a spring sky, moved out along concentric circles from the east, reaching across the background of purple to the north. Against the oddly pastel-like colors, the skeleton-like leaves of the hybrid oak flipped back and forth in the pre-dawn wind, having just turned ochre after being their summer green for so long.
The white oak up the hill has finally turned, too. Overnight, it has gone orange, with scattered spots of red. The southern sky above it is suddenly filled with small white thunderheads, hiding behind streaks of purple as the light grows. Closer to me, the leaves of the young red oak sport multicolor patches.
A few tattered rags of deep crimson still cling to the nearly denuded Washington hawthorn. Those few tatters are all that remain of the leaves of the Virginia creeper, which two weeks ago so covered the tree that it was canopied in brilliant crimson. I just learned this fall that the creeper’s leaves turn bright red to attract the birds to its dark blue berries. I miss the leaves now they’re gone; but the birds are still here.
October 25, 2007
· Filed under Uncategorized
The blog title is Nature of Oakes: where I plan to write about Nature — Nature meaning outdoors, the natural world around us, but sometimes I may also write about human nature — or my own nature. To get started:
Autumn has finally arrived — it was late getting here this year. What I noticed today were the squirrels — twice this morning, I saw two almost get run over as I was driving out of my neighborhood. Why are they in such a hurry? — The acorns fell weeks ago — I guess they’re still finding some. Maybe they’re hidden under the leaves — though not that many leaves have fallen yet: most have just started turning. Right now the most noticeable color is yellow – maples (though some are bright vermilion) and the pagoda dogwoods (though the dogwoods started out as pale salmon pink, and then turned yellow). The sandbar willows I passed along a stream are yellow, too.
What I find most striking about the yellow autumn leaves is how they seem to make the daylight last longer. Their colors are so bright that they glow through the windows in the evening, almost as if there is extra light outside. Tuesday night there was a beautiful sunset: all red-orange streaks of cloud, streaming up out of the west. The bright orange behind the yellow leaves seemed to lengthen the day by several minutes — and I rejoiced in it.
