One of the vivid memories I have as a child was the layer of truly golden leaves a maple tree dropped in front of our house. I was enchanted by this mundane magic. —We have silver maples, whose leaves typically curl up into sad brown slivers, pale on their undersides, shorn of the glorious colors for which maples are famed—easier to rake, and a native, fast-growing species besides.
carpet of gold: I do so love texture. This image was lightened to make the leaves look closer to how I remember them. To be sure, they really do achieve a bright lemon color!
Not until I moved and learned a little more about native species did I discover the durable, dependable trees with the bright yellow leaves were Norway maples; and our neighbor's is plagued with tar-spot, an unsightly, but not particularly harmful condition. But, in contrast to the drought last year, this year we got so much rain gardens hardly had to be watered; and the trees loved it. Even the oaks are showing unusual levels of color.
Light is a funny thing. Same leaves, same time of day...just a different angle, and bit of sun getting past the shadow of the house.
There is a Norway maple on the boundary of my neighbor and our property, but the bulk of its leaves drop onto his lawn; and so, in celebration of that childhood memory, I tried photographing them.
Still on the tree.
The second photo is actually sort of a make up for the one I really wanted, which was badly focused. As sort of a sop, I took some images of the sun filtering through leaves still on the trees. You have to admit, the gold and blue combo certainly is glorious. Also, it's pretty sweet, the way a bit of light manipulation yields what was supposed to be a unified triptych of images that actually don't quite gel because the lighting in each is so different (shot in shadow in the first, more-or-lessinto the sun for the second, and sort of right angles in the third.)
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
