November round up – the leaf edition!
I may have got a bit carried away with photos of Autumn leaves once they started to change colour. I realised that when I was looking through the last of the November photos that I hadn’t shown you and there was photo after photo of leaves in all shades of brown, orange and yellow. Never one to keep my obsessions to myself (socks, leaves … ), I thought I’d do a round up of the month through the leaves I have seen, although you’ll be pleased to know that I am not about to show you every photo on my camera roll! You can have too much of a good thing!
Anyway, put your boots on and come and kick through some leaves with me! (This post is picture-heavy so there will be plenty of leaves to kick through!)
All of a sudden, it seemed, we went from almost-Autumn to full-on Autumn and the colours have been wonderful to see. Even on wet days, there have been the most vibrant colours which has made pulling on my wellies and waterproof more than worth the effort. I’ve been particularly taken by the views down the woodland paths this year. These next four photos were all taken at Culcheth Linear Park, a footpath that follows the line of an old railway. It’s likely to change in the coming years as it’s in the path of the new HS2 railway but for now, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this season as I’ve walked with the dog.
There have been reflections …
and carpets of leaves so thick that unless you knew where the path was, you wouldn’t know where to walk at all.
I’ve kicked up so many leaves … trying to take photos of flying leaves with your phone really doesn’t work (or at least, not for me!) but I did like the strange blurry quality of these two, especially the one at the bottom where it’s only partly blurred …
It’s not been enough for me to walk through the leaves and kick them about, I’ve had to stop and admire them at every opportunity too. The dog has got used to me doing this now and doesn’t even bother to come to see what I’m looking at – unless he thinks there might be a treat in it!
One of the places that we walk is full of beech trees. They’re the leaves that I’m kicking in the photos above, and the woodland in the photos above those. The trees don’t have a single trunk that goes straight into the ground but instead it spreads out like fingers or toes and they are often above the ground. At the moment, they’re covered by the leaves – Nature’s gloves or socks!
These are the leaves more closely. Beech (and especially copper beech) is often used as a hedging so you’ve probably got some of this near your house if you live in the UK.
The sycamore leaves have looked like gold this year, bright flashes on the trees amongst all of the other colours. You’ll be able to spot them in the photos I’ve shown you already, especially the ones of the woodland paths.
What I’ve never noticed before is how there seem to be sycamore trees with leaves of different sizes, although the sycamore is a form of maple tree so these might have been intended varieties in the places where they’ve been planted. The huge one on the left is in an avenue of trees leading to a housing estate so they will definitely have been chosen deliberately.
It’s amused me no end to measure my hand against the leaves!
And then the frost came and the leaves were just as beautiful, covered in silver white frost. Winter is without doubt only just around the corner but it seems as if Autumn has only just started! I hope we get a few more weeks to enjoy the leaves.
Went to a talk about trees and what is happening to them last Thursday at Highdown Gardens, Worthing. Didn’t know how much I didn’t know. Lovely photos. 🍁🍂🍃
Ooh, I bet that was really good! There’s always more to know, isn’t there? 🙂 xx
I’m the mad woman people may have spotted throwing sycamore keys into the air in our church car park!
Excellent! Long may you continue to do that! 🙂 xx
Here in Oklahoma the fall colors have been the best I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve lived here. The maples are particularly RED this year and even the more staid oaks are pretty colorful.
Oh that sounds lovely! They are definitely Nature’s fireworks, aren’t they? 🙂 xx