“Alas, this is not a leaf-looker’s year…”
Say all the different expressions of frustration that you wish, like “oh, drat!” or “curses!” or “oh, shucky darn!” but that will not make the leaves look pretty. It’s kind of ironic, too. See, according to an article in the Staunton paper today, this season is not a good season for fall colors. And much of the blame for the lackluster season, interestingly enough, comes from all the rain we’ve had. That really surprises me, because you’d think with all the rain, with us getting enormous amounts of it this year, that it would make for healthy leaves. Not so, the experts say, as we find out that rain is actually not all that good for leaves. Great for trees, but not for leaves, as the rain promotes fungal growth, which served to put a damper on the leaves. Added to that, they say, you also had Hurricane Isabel roaring through here in September as a big factor, as well as a storm in October. All that added together makes for a kind of blah leaf season. And it’s really a shame, too. That’s one reason I enjoy fall – the leaves. It makes walking around and driving around such a treat to see all the colors. Just look at my Autumn Leaves set in the Photography section and you’ll see what I mean. And it really is a good time visually for trees, too. That and spring. Winter and summer really are kind of blah for trees. In the winter, they’re totally bare, which is to be expected. In the summer, everything’s fairly uniform for the most part, and uniformly green. Spring is great, because there’s that transitional bloom period, where you get all the pretty flowers, though they only last a brief period before the leaves arrive. Then there’s fall, where you get all manner of colors from dark purplish-red to a bright yellow, with millions of shades in between, with differences across the different trees, as well as within the same tree. I love fall…
Date posted: October 27, 2003
Notes: The photo used with this quote article is an unused photo from the Autumn Leaves photo set.