Fall 2002

This fall was a good one for leaf color, at least in my yard. You can see from this picture that the front yard is covered in yellow leaves deep enough that you can't even see grass. The fun part is they haven't all fallen yet as you can see from all the leaves still hanging on the trees. Just a few days after this picture I had to mow them up. If they lay on the grass too long they kill it, and it doesn't take very long at all. The two pictures below are different sections of the back yard. You can see that there are plenty of trees back there too. And plenty of leaves, though most of these are still on the trees. The brilliant yellow one on the right is a volunteer maple. I don't know what kind of maple, but it is a very interesting tree in the fall. In 2001 it turned just as brilliant in color, but it was hot pink! In 2003 it only made it to a rather drab pale yellowish brown. I can only wonder what color it will be next year. This is the only tree in the yard that I have noticed that will turn different colors in different years. The rest of them always turn the same color, but it may be more or less intense each year.

A few days later and the back yard was almost as covered as the front, as the picture on the left shows. In 2003 there never was a covering of any part of the yard that even came close to these pictures. The trees never came close to matching the previous year either. Everything was just brown, and a few leaves would fall today, a few more the next day. They have been falling for about three weeks now and there are still some hanging on. Ah well, there's always next year.