Friday Ramble - Changing

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

Suddenly, there in the hedgerows on our morning walks are clear signals that seasonal changes are on their way. Persistent strands of Virginia creeper wrapping old wooden fences and stone walls and draping themselves around trees and shrubs were completely green only a few days ago, and this morning a few are beginning to look more like Yuletide (or Christmas) paper, dappled red and green and silvery blue in the early light. Where stones and bricks get direct sunlight during the day and retain their heat at night, creepers hang on to their summer greens a little longer, but they too are thinking about changing.

The margins of oak leaves are lightly touched with the splendid rosy bronze they wear in late September and early October before falling to earth, and beech leaves are already edged in coppery red and cognac. One of my forestry references identifies our native beeches as being of the species called simply "common beech". To my mind, there is nothing common about the beeches on our Lanark hill with their majestic height, silvery bark, dense foliage and rounded crowns. The trees are simply magnificent.

Part of me wants to dance about and applaud slightly cooler temperatures, the burnished, glorious colors about to come into their own.  Another part of me, as much as I love the harvest season and Samhain (or Halloween), is dismayed at the thought of an early autumn this time around.  Fall should not arrive until mid-September, and then it ought to hang about until the end of November.

Please Mama, not yet........  let there be several more weeks of sun and warmth and gentle breezes, no ingathering and cold nights for a while longer.