Fall

I know it seems odd to have a post entitled "Fall" after pictures with Santa, trimming the tree, and snow, but I wanted some pictures and I didn't have my camera with me until I took it for snow pictures and then I got some pictures.

I am from Wisconsin, and I think just about everyone loves fall for the amazing colors it brings out. There is just something about fall that I have always missed since I moved away from the Midwest. This year Travis has anticipated the fall and the leaves changing colors and so I have been on the lookout for colorful leaves all season. I don't know if I have just missed it all the years I have lived here or if this year is just that much more vibrant, but this year has had the best colors! I think I have appreciated it more because it requires effort to find the color. It isn't widespread in most places, but the splashes of color that I've seen are brilliant! I think they might even be deeper and truer than I have seen in a long time. (And we went leaf-peeping in Maine when I was pregnant with Justin!) It's not the whole tree, but just portions. Just a branch or maybe just the ends of the limbs. I just cannot help but smile when I see something like this:




I know I am not a photographer, but you can see that the tips of the trees are painted with the brightest color red. It's like God is using the tree as a paintbrush and he dipped it in crimson. The inside is green, but the tips are flaming red!

Or what about this:



This is one of my favorite summer plants, a crepe myrtle. And I hope you can see at the base of each branch is golden yellow and as you move out the color morphs into burnt orange (sorry, Randy) and then it transforms into a scarlet color before you reach the tips, that are green! I have been watching and admiring this gorgeous tree for the past month and now with the freeze all the leaves have fallen off. So I am so glad I was able to capture a glimpse of its splendor.

I spend a lot of time driving around, and it has been fun searching for these bits of color. It's been a reason to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The familiar routes are a treat now as I watch to see how the colors have been creeping and shifting. The leaves are definitely falling now, and we are into our version of "winter". But I won't forget this fall.