Eyefuls of Autumn
A pause for contemplation
I have not stopped thinking of layered colours since my last post, and it so happens to have coincided with the beginning of autumn. I find myself looking at trees differently, at the individuality of their colour-changing: truly, as the ancient Japanese rightly observed when they created their myriad kasane no irome, no two essences display the same palette, or pattern, when they cast off their green coat.
So here’s a photo post, capturing some of the trees I have encountered in the past few days. Oxford delights in having scholars, students and plants from all around the world, and I can’t even identify most of these, though I know them each as an individual by now. What are trees doing where you are right now?
Here in Central Texas our trees are hanging on during exceptional drought, and many of them (live oaks and junipers) don’t change colors like maples and other trees do. However, I was able to get my hands on some bulbs for oxblood lillies this summer, and they have decided it was time to send up some blooms. They are also called schoolhouse lillies here, as the timing of the blooms often coincides with the return to school in the fall. The red blooms are incredibly intense and a wonderful pop of color in an otherwise drought-riddled landscape.
Lovely! Sadly our only remaining deciduous tree (an old apple tree) has suffered badly with drought during the spring, and lost most of its under-developed leaves during the late summer. The fruit never matured beyond golf ball size. Hoping it recovers next year!