Heeere’s color!
Click for more clarity.
Some of you live, as I did growing up in New York, in places where brilliant wide-scale fall foliage is the norm, but that’s not the case in Austin, where only a few species of trees and plants, some of them rather small, get reliably colorful when the weather turns cool. I’ve played those up in these pages for the last couple of late-autumns and will do so again in 2013. This November, though, was different from other recent ones because from November 7th through the 10th Eve and I took a long weekend—1300 round-trip miles over four days—to drive to northwest Arkansas. Fall foliage there when we arrived was a bit past its peak of color, and we were told that intervening winds had brought down some of the leaves, but plenty of individual trees and small groups of them were still bright, much to our delight. The group of trees shown here greeted us on a roadside near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, on November 8th, a blue-sky day given over primarily to sightseeing in nature.
My sudden embarrassment of riches—dozens of good pictures showing fall foliage in Arkansas and later Oklahoma—presents me with a quandary. If I give you gorgeous fall foliage day after day, no matter how beautiful it is you may get tired of it. With that in mind, the plan for the next several weeks will be to start out with a few consecutive trip pictures, then continue with them but gradually weave in images from central Texas, some of which will also be colorful. I hope that the alternation of locations won’t come across as too schizophrenic, but we’ll see. After all, variety is the spice of life.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
The autumn-color deprived of the world say, “Bring on the photos!” When I traveled in the same area, the color was barely a blush across the mountains. I was hoping we’d get to see some images from your trip.
shoreacres
November 21, 2013 at 6:28 AM
I noticed in the first two outdoor photos from your Crystal Bridges post that the trees showed only a bit of color. I’d called up there last fall and asked how the color was doing, thinking it might be a good time for a quick trip, but the woman I spoke with then said it wasn’t a particularly good season. Waiting the extra year worked out well, and you’ll get the vicarious fruits—photographic ones, that is—of this year’s trees.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 7:42 AM
I’m all for colour, wherever it may be Steve. The winter is pretty colourless and dull here, so look forward to more!
Cathy
November 21, 2013 at 7:30 AM
Your winter may be long, colorless, dull (except for snow), and of course cold, but I assume you have good fall foliage in Bavaria, though by now, three weeks into November, that must already seem long past to you. In any case, there’ll be plenty of color in these pages in the days ahead to thaw you out and cheer you up.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 7:48 AM
You go right ahead and post in whatever order and style you want. No doubts here they will be good.
If you had driven up into IA, you would have seen no colored leaves on anything. You know how we are so far north into the tundra and permafrost. 🙂
I’m late today. I had my annual physical exam. I passed with exemplary scores. Funny thing almost happened. The nurse who did the intake questions asked if I would rather first see the doctor or her med student. I chose the doctor. Later I found out the med student was a former high school student of mine. That would have been a little awkward.
Jim in IA
November 21, 2013 at 10:51 AM
Thanks for your vote of confidence about the pictures that appear here, Jim.
I found your “tundra and permafrost” funny, especially since here in Austin we’ve had several recent days with afternoon highs around 80°. Today is predicted to be the same, but a cold front is supposed to drop weekend high temperatures by about 30°.
And yes, it can be awkward to encounter a former student in a different—and quite personal—role. You lucked out in your decision to see the doctor first.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM
My imagination flies…what if that was a student who had a negative attitude about me? Sounds like a possible Night Gallery episode. hahaha
Jim in IA
November 21, 2013 at 11:15 AM
If you’re so inclined, there’s your idea for a play or short story.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 11:21 AM
Glad that you had a touch of autumn. Our season has been devoid of brilliance. It’s been scattered here and there. The quiet colors are a sign of change, but certainly not the glorious blast of some past years.
lensandpensbysally
November 21, 2013 at 11:26 AM
I’m delighted with the unaccustomed touches of autumn color we got to experience, but I’m sorry to hear your season in Delaware was drab. On the other hand, it’s normal for nature to fluctuate, and the glorious blast of color you had in some past years is bound to hit you again. Even here in Austin, where fall color is always relatively subdued compared to what you have in colder climates, some autumns have been noticeably better than average. Of course if we moved to Lake Wobegon, then all years would have better-than-average fall foliage.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 11:34 AM
Eureka Springs sounds rather nice.
sedge808
November 21, 2013 at 8:32 PM
It’s a unique place. You can read more about it at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Springs,_Arkansas
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2013 at 9:10 PM
thank you.
sedge808
November 22, 2013 at 9:03 PM
I like your plan. We had such great color here and I thought it was done for when a huge wind and rain storm came through a couple of weeks ago. Then I got a surprise. Some of the smallish trees and shrubs decided to color up and treat us to more color, most in the yellow and gold values, but still a gorgeous reprise!
Weave away, Steve!
Lynda
November 23, 2013 at 11:25 AM
Just change my name to Webster, i.e. Weaver, as I weave words and pretty pictures in the weeks ahead. I’m still deciding which brightly colored ones to include.
It’s great that you had that second coloring-up, and perhaps you’ll show some pictures of it on your blog. I hope the same will be true here, too, after the current bout of wind, rain, and frigid temperature.
Steve Schwartzman
November 23, 2013 at 11:39 AM
I saw that! It looks as though you are about to get pounded on by the weather!
Lynda
November 23, 2013 at 11:43 AM
Actually it began yesterday, and by yesterday evening the temperature had dropped to 36°, where it stayed overnight. Today’s predicted high is only 40°, and this is the second day of intermittent rain. The thought popped into my head that the rain is making wildflowers for next spring.
Steve Schwartzman
November 23, 2013 at 11:52 AM
😀
Lynda
November 23, 2013 at 12:09 PM
Oh non Steve, on ne peut se fatiguer de voir de telles couleurs. C’est sublime!
chatou11
November 23, 2013 at 12:25 PM
J’espère que tu as raison, Chantal, et qu’on ne se fatigue pas de ces couleurs. Nous verrons.
Steve Schwartzman
November 23, 2013 at 1:28 PM