Brilliant kaleidoscopes of colour give us the excuse to celebrate the most glorious season of the year. Autumn is here and the trees are something to treasure while this virus is making life so difficult for so many. Our gardens and countryside are the good news, the Japanese maples lifting our spirits above this scary gloom.
We know well enough that making contact with nature in the great outdoors is good for our health and well being, so Sue and I have wandered in our garden with a camera to admire the show that our trees have kindly provided.
We hope you enjoy sharing this brief ramble round our patch, along with a few escapes to the outside world.
This glorious show is triggered by shorter days, longer nights and lower temperatures. In the Spring the mysterious alchemy of photosynthesis allows a pigment known as chlorophyll to capture solar rays and manufacture the plants food, simple sugars which are produced from water and carbon dioxide. Stored in their leaves, this is the fuel for growth and plants are perceived as green because chlorophyll absorbs mainly the blue and red wavelengths and reflects the green.Put simply, the reduced light of autumn and reduced green of chlorophyll allows the other colours to shine through, those vibrant reds, oranges and yellows that we admire so much.
With winter approaching there is less light and fuel available, so plants need to conserve energy and water and this is the trigger to drop their leaves and allow us to enjoy their beautiful bare branches.
Winter is wonderful and down here in the south of England it is very short. Even while we’re admiring the autumn colours, the snow drops and daffs are thrusting up out of the grass and the buds of our camellias and magnolias are fattening fast.
