Is this November??

Posted in: trees, Weather | 0

Warning to BC people: This post contains gloating and graphic pictures. If any BC residents are offended by the content, please remember that we in Ontario will be entering many weeks and months in which we likely will be desperately wishing the weather was not so cold and but was more like BC’s weather. You have our permission then to let us know cheerfully that the snow drops and other flowering plants are blooming on the west coast!

I must confess that I have often dreaded the coming of November with its dark, dreary and wet days. I loved getting outside to work in our yard in BC almost year round but rarely in November when the cold, wet brown leaves clogged the gutters and often turned to a slippery mush on the driveway and smothered the lawn and garden.

But we have experienced a different November thus far here in southern Ontario. After high winds and heavy rains last week associated with the remnants of Hurricane Patricia, the skies have been mostly bright and the temperatures very warm for most of the past week. The thermometre hit the high teens all week long and I often got a bit too warm while working outside in shirt sleeves.

The colours are still attractive but more subdued. Even though the majority of trees are now mostly bare, the ground is a carpet of gold leaves.

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Most of the bigger sugar maple trees in the forest around Andrew and Colleen’s cottage have lost their leaves, allowing more sunlight through to lower levels. But, the younger trees (beech and sugar maple) kept their leaves until just the past few days.

 

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Returning from a walk out on the farm one morning this week. It was cool when we started but Sheila soon took her jacket off in the warm sun. Interestingly, our big sugar maple tree was one of the first to lose all of its leaves.

 

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With so many leaves gone, the remaining colour seems to stand out even more.

 

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The setting sun late one afternoon this week lit up the big trees to the north of the orchard where I was mowing. The coppery red tree towards the right of the picture is a northern red oak.

 

The gloating has to come to an end. Even as I was thinking about writing this post today, the weather suddenly changed. Angry black clouds rolled in from the north, cold gusty winds blasted away the piles of leaves that a neighbour and I were raking and an icy shower chased us indoors for a little while. Yes, the skies cleared within the hour but the wind remained cold and frost is forecast for tonight. Nevertheless, we will long remember the wonderful blessing of the bright warm November week that we just experienced.

 

 

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