Autumn (Fall)

Is it my imagination, or are the autumn colours just not as good as we expect? Maybe its the wet summer, but in the park here the leaves are falling off the sycamore and beech trees without any change of colour.

We used to live on the Chilterns, and the beech trees there were wonderful in their autumnal glory. I loved walking in the woods, seeing the light filtered through the orange and yellow leaves. Then, when all the leaves had fallen, I could "shoosh" my feet through the dry leaves. (A childhood habit that has regrettably lasted well into the age of maturity!)

But back to Cheshire and 2008. Individual trees are putting on a magnificent show. I have a Moutain Ash (Rown) tree I raised from a seedling I found in the garden. Its leaves are a glowing scarlet. Many of the trees in the park are specially planted, of course, for their beauty, but I am ignorant as to their names. Some, which from the shape of the leaves must be a sort of Maple, are bright yellow in spring - the leaves, that is, and then bright yellow again in autumn. Now, after all this wind, they are just yellow pools underneath bare branches.