Say It Ain't So!

"Is that tree turning already?" I asked My Darling B as we sipped our java on the sofa this morning. "That can't be right."

B's been telling me over and over again how Fall is coming early this year. "It's the cool nights," she says. If that's so, this tree's in for one hell of a shock when the Dog Days of August bring ninety-degree weather this week.

I snapped a photo of this same tree when it began turning last year -- on September 9th, three weeks from today.

Autumn leaves seen on my walk through the neighborhood this evening.

An autumn day in the country

A visit to Pleasant Hill Market Garden, a CSA farm just outside Stoughton, to pick up some pumpkins for pies and jack-o-lanterns.

Cirrus clouds hanging high over the farm fields.

Still My Favorite

Autumn is my favorite season. Spring is pretty good, too, especially after a harsh winter, but it's a long time until the excitement of the first green shoots pushing their way up through the frozen ground to seek the warmth of sunlight. The trees are a burst of sunset colors themselves right now, and the primal satisfaction of kicking through fallen leaves has stuck with me.

Once again, it's that tree:

Oddly, this is the only tree on our street to so gloriously burst into autumn colors.
Odd, because there are a lot of maples in our neighborhood.

It's that tree again ...

Click on the keyword "autum" below
to see the tree go from mostly green
to red & gold

... those fall colors are becoming more bright.

Can you see it?

That touch of red and orange
at the fringes of the maple tree?
And they had the squash and pumpkins out
at the farmer's market yesterday, too.
Fall is just around the corner.

Yet another view of autum

Our false summer started today, temps in the sixties and everybody walking around in shirt sleeves, trying to make the most of it. I took several laps around the square when I could take a break from work, and let my eyes wander to the window when I couldn't.

... as the colors set in ...

These old oaks can hold onto their leaves forever! There was a hard frost overnight that made a lot of the maples in our neighborhood give up on warm weather altogether. They dumped almost all their leaves in a big heap and went dormant while these oaks tough out the cold snap and slowly become more golden. Even that little ash wants to hold on a bit longer.

The View from the Office Window

Last Friday the old oaks in capital square still had most of their leaves, although they were beginning to turn.

Over the weekend the weather turned wintry, with freezing temps and a respectably heavy snowfall for October. How will the square look this morning?

Autumn in the Capital I

Madison has been awash in the familiar colors of autumn since the beginning of October, and now the leaves have begun to collect on the ground in windswept waves.

In the mornings, frost. At noon, temps in the fifties, and even that's fast becoming a fond memory.

To hasten the transition, all this week cold rain came spitting down from a cast-iron sky, forcing everyone to dig out their heavy coats. Noone's dallying on the streets.

Here's perhaps one last look at the capital while the leaves of autumn still frame it.

Autumn in the Capital II

The shops and restaurants around the square are dressed up in celebration of the harvest season.