Grabbing autumn by the tail

A chink of blue in a cold late autumn sky...

We had gales and a lot of rain at the end of last week, which brought down most of the remaining leaves from our trees. Today there is a frost, so winter is snapping at autumn’s tail…

Hardly a leaf remains on the ash trees (Fagus sylvatica) at the back of the house - but lots of ash keys. That's the top of a silver birch bottom left of the picture...

I’m a firm believer in “If you can’t get out of it, get into it”, so decided to appreciate the autumn leaves as we swept them up into several big black sacks for the compost heap.

A mixture of fallen leaves in the front garden, blown up against a Cotoneaster hedge - those big dark brown leaves with white undersides are from a whitebeam

It always amazes me that we find leaves of tree species we don’t even have in the garden. I wonder how far they travel?

The last few leaves of Liquidambar still hang on to the tree despite the gales - click on the picture to go to my tribute to the Red Queen of the Fall

On this occasion, as well as the red Liquidambar styraciflua leaves that dominate the front lawn and the little rotting ash leaves (Fagus sylvatica) that fill the back yard, I saw whitebeam (Sorbus aria), oak (Quercus robur), silver birch (Betula pendula) and even a horse chestnut “leaflet” (Aesculus hippocastanum) and one or two linden (Tilia).

An easily-recognised oak leaf holds firm among rotting ash and Japanese Acer dissectum leaves

I think this is a stray horse chestnut leaflet...

That's a beech on the left, field maple on the right and big brown oak leaf in the middle...

Brown Liquidambar leaf in the Cotoneaster, with heather to the left

Those Liquidambar leaves get everywhere - this one is on the Euonymus, with Choisya ternata to the left

I’ve already tried to “explain” the colour changes of autumn leaves in my blog post The red leaves of autumn. Some leaves change colour and fall gracefully, some less so…

Subtle colours among fading leaves of Hydrangea petiolaris

Fallen red leaves and tiny yellow Mahonia petals in the shade under the Japanese Acer dissectum atropurpureum

These Japanese Acer leaves, formerly lime green, are not dying gracefully...

A self-seeded Campanula among the leaf mulch on a paved path

One of the last trees to lose its golden leaves is this field maple...

I’m not really one for poems, but I think this one by Scottish poet Elsie N Brady describes the season well…

Leaves
How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colours gleaming in the sun.

At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow.

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