The Season Turns

We went from a week or two of summer in late September/early October, to autumn over the past few days, and it seems as though overnight, the leaves started turning. It's mostly locusts and ashes*, which are the first to turn. There are whole stretches of streets lines with bright yellow locust trees, although, typically, there are places where they are still green.

The maple across the alley is bright flaming red-orange, although the maple next to it is still green. Ditto a pair of basswoods at one of my regular bus stops -- one is mostly that dark bronze-red that basswoods turn in the fall; the one next to it is still green. I haven't figured out the mechanism here -- it's got to be a combination of day length and exposure: it seems that trees in more sheltered locations turn later -- not always, but then nothing in nature is 100%.

At any rate, fall is here. Nice to look at, but I'm not as cold-proof as I used to be, so it's a mixed bag.

* Those ashes that are left. The emerald ash borer, which somehow got here from Asia, has wreaked havoc on the native ash trees. I can't find a count on the number of trees destroyed, but it's in the tens of millions.