Continuing glory of the oak

The oak leaves are looking beautiful these days!

The view from my balcony in October

The cottonwood has lost some of its leaves

and the Norway maples have a bit of a yellow glow to them.

Fall comes to the oaks

As the sugar maples have passed their peak, the oaks are starting to come into their glory.

Green remains

The trees on the hill (silver maple, Norway maple, sycamore maple) are still pretty green.

Sugar maple leaves falling

The sugar maples are still colorful, but the leaves are getting a little thinner.

Not a coral bark maple?

Last February, I observed a tree with orange bark.  I hypothesized that it was a coral bark maple.

I think this is the same tree.

This is not a maple leaf.  Therefore, either 1) the orange tree is not a coral bark maple, or 2) this leaf is not from the orange tree.

Today's foliage

Today I saw lots of fall foliage as I drove through eastern New York and western Massachusetts.  I think the foliage was most beautiful in Stephentown, NY, especially because of the way the sun lit it up.  As we got into the Berkshire hills, many of the trees had already lost their leaves.  Then as we descended into the Pioneer Valley on the other side of the hills, the trees started having more leaves again.

I wanted to take a lot of photos in Stephentown, but I couldn't because I was driving.  Instead, I took these photos at two picnic areas where we stopped in Massachusetts.

The tree below is a sycamore.

I took these photos at the place in Williamsburg where Daisy stayed this summer.

A narrower cottonwood

Cottonwoods are common where I live and at the two places I usually go to see trees (the bike path and Peebles Island). The cottonwoods I usually see usually have thick trunks. At the orchard, I saw a cottonwood with a narrower trunk. Maybe that means it is a younger tree than the other cottonwoods I have seen. I'm not usually fond of cottonwoods, but I thought this one had a grace to it.

Fall foliage at the orchard

It is peak season for fall foliage.  I think sugar maples have the most beautiful fall colors, and they are showing their colors now, so that may be one of the things that makes it peak season.  The sumacs also look lovely at this time of year.

At the same time, I'm always grateful to the Norway maples for allowing me to continue to see green late into the fall. 

Here are some foliage pictures taken yesterday at the orchard.

Locust pods

There are a lot of locust trees around where I live, but the ones around here don't usually have long pods like this one that I saw at the orchard.

Close-up of a spruce

In addition to apple trees, the apple orchard had many other lovely trees, including this spruce:

This picture was taken in mid-October.  It will be interesting to see how spruce trees look at different times of the year.

A visit to an apple orchard

After reading Not Far From the Tree: A Brief History of the Apples and the Orchards of Palermo, Maine, 1804-2004 by John P. Bunker Jr., I wanted to visit an apple orchard.  Yesterday, I visited Riverview Orchards.  One of the things I noticed was how the apple tree I planted in Connecticut resembled these trees (except it is a lot smaller, because it was just planted this year).  It was comforting to see that my apple tree looked like a proper apple tree.

Here is a photo taken October 13 of the tree I planted:

And here is an apple tree from the orchard:

One thing that I noticed was how the small branches looked:

In contrast, here is the trunk of the same tree:

I noticed that the ground below some of the trees was covered with moss.

In other places, there was some bare ground below the trees.

Sometimes there was some moss and some bare ground.

And I saw one tree with burdock below it.

Some trees had only a few apples left. Perhaps many had already been picked.

Others had an abundance of fruit.

On the apple trees, most of the leaves were still green.

I did see one leaf with a little fall color.

It was wonderful to see all the beautiful apples and apple trees.