Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Leaves, Part Two



It's kinda gray and drizzly outside today, and I'm loving it.   Hey, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and gray, cloudy, rainy days were the norm in the fall and winter.   And I miss them.  
And down here there's an awful lot of sunny days.  But the sun does bring out the golden tones of some leaves.

And the sun also shines over the rest...
And you can see the flowers, putting forth a last effort before the colder weather hits.  With some vines just hanging around, teasing the sky.
With every so often something wondrous happens , which you only see later on...

And then as you glance down while walking along, there are some more definite signs, fall, nay winter is on the way.   The leaves are starting to fall, and are ready to repeat the cycle by returning to the earth, with one last gasp of bright red colors.


But there are always some leaves that are conflicted, can't make up their minds, green, golden or just skip it all and go to the brown.
 Or change, gradually...


And the vines, twining, climbing, flaunting the fact that they still have leaves, while other plants have lost theirs.




And finally,


There are those leaves who are making the statement, they may be changing, but they're hanging on. 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Leaves, Part One

I've been fascinated with leaves lately.  Just about every walk I've taken with my dogs the past few weeks, I've spotted a few leaves or a vine that beg to have their picture taken.    So, since I'm not good when something begs, I give in way too easily, I went ahead and took the pictures.    And here they are, at least Part One.
Tender new shoots
Reaching out...
From the tender shoots and reaching vines to the wispy leaves of this plant...
And then I saw this...
And I knew Fall was on its way, just a touch of bronzing to begin with...
But then the other leaves showed signs of changing, and I knew cooler weather was on its way.

Flowers were ready to release their seed pods. 
And the vines started to change, and fruit started to set for the wild animals to eat.
Vines were fountaining out from standing trees.

And some of the leaves got redder and redder...
The vines continued to turn yellow and drop their leaves. 

I'll add some more pictures later as the journey into fall continued...