Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
On our morning walks, there are tell tale signs everywhere that seasonal changes are on their way. Wildflowers are going to seed, and the foliage along our way looks faded and a little tired. The persistent strands of Virginia creeper wrapping old wooden fences and stone walls and draping themselves around trees and shrubs were brilliantly green only a few days ago, and this morning, one or two are starting to look more like Yule (or Christmas) paper, dappled red and green and silvery blue in the early light. Where stones and bricks get direct sunlight during the day and retain their heat at night, creepers will hang on to their summer greens for quite a while longer, but they too are thinking about changing.
The margins of oak leaves are lightly touched with the splendid rosy bronze they wear in September and early October before falling to earth, and beech leaves are already edged in coppery red and cognac. Of course, it could simply be the heat setting such changes in motion and not an early autumn. One of of my forestry references identifies our native beeches as being of the species called simply "common beech". To my mind, there is nothing common about the great beeches on our Lanark hill with their majestic height, silvery bark, dense foliage and rounded crowns. The trees are magnificent, and how I do love them.
Part of me wants to dance about and applaud the cooler temperatures to come, the burnished, glorious colors about to come into their own. Another part, as much as I love the harvest season and Samhain (or Halloween), is dismayed at the thought of an early autumn this time around. Fall should not arrive until September 21st at the earliest, and then it is allowed to hang about until the end of November.
Please Mama, not yet... Let there be several more weeks of sun and warmth and gentle breezes, no ingathering and cold nights for a while longer.
1 comment:
Lovely thoughts. Heart-warming photo as usual. :-) Those stones behind the creeper seem to have a story to tell. Thank you.
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