We're finally starting to see a little bit of fall color but first, some lovely sky pictures that I took on October 9th (the first one) and 14th. (pics 2 and 3)
In past years we have had peak fall color by October 10th but, as you can see, all the leaves were still completely green as late as the 14th. This is pretty much the same as last year.
Finally, this week the leaves are beginning to turn. This one was the 21st. Still mostly green but you can see a little bit of gold and brown.
As I commented on Twitter last week, everyone expects the spring of painters and poets. More often spring kind of sucks. Dark cloudy days, rain, storms. There have been years when we didn't see the sun at all for weeks at a time. This year though, we have had many very nice days, truly the spring of painters and poets. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much that this week is going to be the more typical spring of rain and storms.
This was Saturday, looking up from under a tree in my front yard. It doesn't get much better than this.
I was outside this weekend and for some reason I noticed that the pattern of the limbs of this tree, which I've seen every day for more than 20 years, looked especially pleasing. That's what I love about where I live. Somehow there's always something new to notice, even if it's always been there.
One of my favorite things when I was a little kid was my mother's old collection of scenic View Master reels. They were, in a way, my "internet". They showed me the world (actually, only parts of the US) and I spent many hours looking at them and pretending I was looking out the window of a bus or passenger train. Most of the reels have copyright dates in the late 1940s, about 10 years before I was born. They were still in perfect condition in the 1960s and 70s but now most of the transparencies are faded, dirty, or damaged. This one is still in fairly good condition.
One of the images is of a giant redwood tree with a tunnel carved through it for cars to drive through, so when I heard that the Tunnel Tree had fallen in a storm it was almost like I was reading about another celebrity death. But it turns out that it's not the same tree. The tree on the View Master is the privately owned Chandelier Tree.
This is the Tunnel Tree, also known as the Pioneer Cabin Tree.
And now...
This is very sad. It was a famous tree so it's still sort of like a celebrity death but I have to admit I'm relieved that "my" tree is still standing.
