Changing colors? #phenology

Damp, approaching soggy, describes the local conditions. The dogs have been carefully checking fresh whitetail tracks in the gravel road. We know they're fresh because those tracks weren't there yesterday when we took our walk. When and if the township gets around to blacktopping our road, tracks will disappear and, we suspect, so will scents other than bituminous. Some might call it progress. The dogs and we beg to differ. At least we'll still have autumn colors to enjoy, we hope.

by September 20, 2014 many leaves showed color

Photo by J. Harrington

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can. Looking at the local leaves, it seems that colors are developing later this year than in many years past. Even the roadside poison ivy, which often is among the first to show color, remains predominantly green. Local maples haven't yet turned much either, in comparison with today's photo. We're not sure if it's the crazy weather (90's over the weekend, less than 60 today) that's affecting the color change. The photoperiodicity shouldn't, we hope, change much regardless of climate change, but might it be affected by extended periods of cloudiness or sunshine? Follow the link in the preceding sentence if you're interested in the science of color change.

Song for Autumn

by Mary Oliver

In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, are beginning to look for

the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.