Autumn Leaves

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Horus
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Autumn Leaves

Post by Horus »

LLL asked the other day about our Autumn leaf colour in the UK so I thought I would post a few recent pictures taken during my last walk a few days ago. Our walk took us through woods and open fields plus some village roads and the canal, everywhere are the signs of Autumn with many trees dropping their leaves and others starting or already turning brown. Unlike in Canada or the US our trees are mainly Ash, Beech, Oak, Willow, Lime, Horse Chestnut, Sycamore etc. but hardly any of the Maple family. It is mainly the Maple family that turn that lovely Orange or Reddish colour, whereas most of our native species only turn Yellow or Yellowish before turning brown, I believe that the reason for this is the sugar content of the leaves. In Canada and the US where there are lots of Maple varieties and they naturally produce lots of sugar in the leaves during the Summer months then as Autumn (Fall) approaches the trees try to retain as much of this as possible and so start to remove this from their leaves. This also removes the green pigmentation chlorophyll and leaves only the (usually) yellowed colouration that we see during Autumn. The main difference is that our trees in the cooler climates and not being Maples, do not produce as much sugar, therefore it is removed quicker and then the leaves can fall naturally, but if your trees are high sugar content like Maples then you need to slow that leaf dropping process down so that you have a longer time to re-absorb the sugar from the leaves. To do that the Canadian & US Maples will produce a sort of sunscreen (often) in just the top canopy so as to give the leaf more protection while this absorption takes place and that is the Reddish/Orange colours we see prior to their leaves falling.

Trees along the canal
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I often stop and chat to friends living along here, often calling across the canal :lol:
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Passing through the village
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A favourite refreshment stopping off point along our walk ;) and passing under the bridge is a barge loaded with sandstone
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Winter Wheat in the open fields, the Bracken has turned brown and signs of colour in the trees
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Some way to go yet! Annie always uses the swing gate even though she could go through the gap at the side :D
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I relocated the 'Tinkebell' stone on this old tree stump as no one had found it in the last location, it was found the next day :up
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This is a set of steps by the canal locks that I pass quite often and it has only just dawned upon me that what I always took to be a bit of cement repair work was actually because these very well worn steps of several hundred years of age had actually been turned over at some time in the past!
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LovelyLadyLux
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Re: Autumn Leaves

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Lovely photos and that is pretty remarkable about the steps on the stairs. What amazes me always and most is how long things have really lasted. We don't seem to have anything that lasts very long here but it IS amazing how long what was built hundreds of years ago can last (if maintained). Also makes me wonder at all that was built and is not gone never to be seen again.

Our trees here on the West Coast are somewhat like your trees there. We don't really get the super vibrant fall colours of Eastern Canada where the trees are actually producing syrups. Those colours range from light yellow to vibrant dark red particularly after the first frost.

I think Annie taking the gate is just part of a terrier being a terrier and always going for the most awkward and difficult that they can fight their way through!

Good your fairy rock was found too. I haven't gotten down the beach yet to pick up from palm sized flat rocks to scatter along the trail behind me. Sun it out today but I won't be going too far as am packing the car but hopefully soon I'll get there and grab a dozen rocks and put them out. Behind me is technically an eco area but am sure painted rocks shouldn't be too terrible a thing.

Lovely photos and that pampas grass across the canal is lovely! I quite like it but it does grow big so I decided I didn't want to wrestle with it here.
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Re: Autumn Leaves

Post by Kiya »

Lovely photos & so informative , great to see the steps being kept :)
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Re: Autumn Leaves

Post by Grandad »

Interesting post of your walk as usual H. :up And like the others, I have never seen that done with worn steps to make them safer but it keeps the history instead of replacing them.
With my limited outings there does not seem to be much colour around. What is evident this year is the acute lack of winter food for the wildlife. We have a very large sweet chestnut tree on the bank and apart from a few early husks a couple of weeks ago, there is nothing on it.
Same goes for the oak tree. Last year we had buckets full of acorns but this year there is not one ???
The squirrels will have a hard time....
:gg:
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Re: Autumn Leaves

Post by Horus »

Its been a bit of a mixed bag Grandad, as you say very few Conkers or Chestnuts, lots of Beech nuts and Rose Hips, very few acorns, but lots of Hawthorn berries.
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