With the persistent heat we've experienced since the fall season began, I'd assumed that I wasn't going to see any fall color here. Not that coastal Southern California is known for its leaf color in the first place but October was more hot than not, causing leaves on most of my deciduous plants to go from green to brown without any flashes of yellow, orange or red in between. Early November was blessedly cool but our Thanksgiving holiday this week was pronounced the hottest on record. Still, it cooled off at night, which isn't usually the case during our summer heatwaves. And, when cutting back the grapevine on the north side of the house, I found we had a touch of fall color after all.
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| Most of the grape leaves dropped during October's heat but this vine, which had stretched over the fence into our lime tree on the other side, still had some leaves |
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| Colorful leaves to boot! |
This discovery sent me off on a scavenger hunt with my camera and I found a bit more leaf color here and there.
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| The peach tree that sits along the back slope near our property boundary is showing a flash of color |
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| So is this persimmon tree in my vegetable-turned-cutting garden. The persimmon tree on the other side of the fence dropped most of its leaves, all brown, in October. |
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| The maple trees in the neighbor's front garden across the street are suddenly showing some seasonal color too |
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| And this noID tree, also in the neighbor's garden across the street, is sporting warm yellow tones |
While I was out looking at foliage, I realized that I wasn't the only one on a scavenger hunt.
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| I'd moved the 3 miniature pumpkins I had in the house into the garden 2 weeks ago when I saw they were showing the first signs of rot. They were unmolested for some time but discovered as a happy Thanksgiving surprise by this squirrel. He ran away with the smallest pumpkin the day before, despite the fact that it had to be almost one-quarter of his size. |
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| These photos, taken from inside the kitchen, aren't great but I had to share the squirrel's aborted attempt to run off with another of the small pumpkins this morning. He literally tumbled head first in the effort, as you can see in the middle photo. Apparently, he gave up the idea of carrying it off, at least until he whittles it down to a smaller size. |
If you're out and about this weekend, I hope you find what you're looking for too!
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
