We’ve arrived in Central-west New South Wales at the beginning of Autumn. Like much of the temperate and cooler part of Australia there are lots of northern-hemisphere deciduous trees here, and at this time of the year the leaves are starting to change colour and fall. This creates explosions of colour all around the towns' streets. The beautiful trees are promoted as a visitor attraction in many towns, including Orange.
Here are some street scenes of the autumn trees around Orange:
This is a lovely row of English Oaks in the appropriately named Autumn Street:
The oaks’ leaves are only just starting to turn and fall, but the trees have already dropped huge numbers of acorns. The acorns are a bit deadly – walking on freshly dropped acorns is like walking on ball bearings!
The vineyards
There are lots of vineyards around Orange, and the leaves of the vines are also turning and falling, giving the vineyards a lovely golden glow:
Three years ago I was housesitting in Augusta, in south-west Western Australia. While I was there I visited the vineyards of Margaret River in the autumn which were also changing colour and creating beautiful vistas to photograph.
Deciduous trees and me
I grew up in subtropical South-East Queensland, Australia, where the only common deciduous trees are jacarandas, a popular South American import. Jacarandas mostly hang on to their leaves all through the winter, slowly drop them at the beginning of November, are immediately covered in masses of lilac flowers, and then grow new leaves before all the flowers drop off – they never really have bare branches. The only time I saw trees with bare branches is when they had been ring-barked, poisoned, or flooded, so it hasn’t been a positive sight to me!
In the last few years I have travelled to temperate climates a lot more in winter, and have seen a lot more deciduous trees without their leaves. It took me a while to get used to seeing masses of bare-branched trees; I couldn't help thinking that some lunatic had gone mad with glyphosate and killed them all. On a previous trip to the United Kingdom we arrived a little bit too early in the spring, and I found the leafless trees everywhere quite depressing. However, I’m used to it now, and I trust that the leaves will all come back.
Of course, all these pretty deciduous trees have a down side – the falling leaves make a huge mess that the residents and local councils have to put a huge effort into cleaning up!
Tags
If you enjoyed this blog post, you can find related posts under these headings:
Share this The Journey and the Destination post using your favourite social media:
Would you like to add something, or ask a question? Add a comment below (you can leave the 'Website' field blank):