Saturday, October 1, 2011

Autumn

As I enter the waning years of my lifetime it seems the seasons all come a little quicker and are a little shorter.  So it is with this fall season.  It seems only a few weeks ago it was Groundhog’s Day, with snow on the ground, and spring a long way off.  Then it was May’s Memorial Day, and days later it was the Fourth of July.  Soon came Labor Day and now it is October first.  Where has the year gone?
On September 18th I took the first photo of this series.  These were some of the first leaves I had spotted that were losing their green of summer to become a part of New York’s beautiful fall colors.  However it was only a few leaves on a single tree, so fall must be a long way off yet.  Right?
Fast forward one week to September 25th.  The very same red leaves are yet there, but it appears the old master painter has added a goodly group of yellows to join them.  In fact it seems as if about half of the tree is now covered with colors other than green.  Only a week went by as summer changed to fall.  What happened?
Same tree, different day!  On September 27th, only two days after the last photo, the yellows are already changing to brown.  The reds can still be seen but they are fading fast.  Soon they will drop to the ground to begin the change to humus for future tree growth.  It’s an ever-changing cycle.  Let’s hope it continues this way for a long long time.

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