Autumn colours

It has been a long and colourful autumn, the trees seemed to keep their colours for months. I noticed that some trees (mostly beech) lose their leaves in stages - losing all the leaves from their outer branches first - but often retaining the lower ones, closer to the heart of the plant, till later - often even through the winter. On Friday I did a farm visit and saw a stand of trees -which I couldn't identify - with a totally different shedding pattern. They were completely bereft of leaves except one remaining vestigial leave at the end of each branch. They were little flags - refusing to surrender.

One of the last trees to lose their leaves were the Ginkos in the car park next to my flat. When all the other trees had lost their colour they continued to glow a golden colour, just a few feet outside my window.



Now winter is starting to show its hand. This evening I set out to drive to Nijmegen to see a friend. The rain and wind were unbelievable - I couldn't see fifty feet ahead of me. Mindful of the extreme weather conditions in the UK in the last few days I decided to turn back. I just didn't want to be on a motorway in weather like that.