Tuesday morning was time for a walk through the autumn colors at Morton Arboretum before they all would fall. The primary color was the yellow of the maples.
A creek through the maples
Spotlight on the yellow maple
The was a bit of orange and reds among the oaks, and a few others were enjoying the trails.
A walk among the maples frames by some oaks
An old oak
A single revolution and autumn changed to winter with a good snowfall the next morning. Some of the leafy branches weighted down with the wet snow broke off to the ground.
Paperbark hazelnut
Winter oaks
The trail led from the oak forest to the trees of China, and I traveled about a half century. When I was 9 or so, I wanted to be an archaeologist, and would show off my rock collection. A friend of my dad’s said he collected fossils. Then next time he visited, he gave me a small collection he labeled and mounted. The star was a ginkgo leaf which he told me was a living fossil. It lived before the time of the T. Rex and was still growing. Here was copse of ginkgos with their fan-shaped leaves turning gold.
Under the ginkgo trees
Ginkgo window
The trees canopy and envelope each other, telling stories of the day, the season, or an epoch. And sometimes of a kindness done long ago.
Autumn umbrella
Winter hugs