From universally beloved commentor Satby:
We’re under a winter weather watch here with icy rain turning to one-three inches of snow tonight. Luckily, the last time we had color this good I had snapped a few pictures of the glorious fall maple foliage around town, because today the leaves are falling as fast as the rain and my plans to go snap some more were dashed.
Sugar maples are everywhere in South Bend. A few years ago street plantings were switched to the newer hybrid Autumn Blaze maple, with a deeper red. Those are still pretty small compared to these beauties.
Fall color is my favorite!
Thematically related, from commentor JeffG166
10.16.2022
Last hurrah of the tithonia this year. Supposedly we are getting frost tonight.
Some more from Satby:
I got out in the rain yesterday because I really love the colors, so here’s part two.
1. Colors along the St. Joseph river
2. On the campus of IUSB
3. Street scene.
***********
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
mrmoshpotato
Very nice. Those red trees are all “Ba-boom!”
I should photograph a local nature park tomorrow. Saw some nice colors, including screaming red trees, yesterday.
eclare
Those colors are gorgeous, satby!
sab
Gorgeous trees.
I had never heard of tithonia before. Something to think about for next years garden.
Jeffery
There hasn’t been good autumn color in Philadelphia for about 12 years. That year we had a cool rainy summer. This year after a hot dry summer we had an almost normal fall. The color is better than last year but nothing like it use to be.
As a kid there was a corner house several blocks away the had sugar maples planted on the two streets it adjoined. I would go out of my way to see those trees in their full glory. The leave glowed brilliant red, orange and yellow.
Jeffery
@sab: Also known as Mexican sunflower. Does well in heat.
WereBear
What lovely pics! Likewise, I missed photographing peak because we were deluged with errands around that time. All down and brown now.
But it was 66 yesterday. Great hiking weather, still.
I just cannot keep up with my email anymore. I guess there’s no help but slave over it and madly delete, but I’m sure I’m missing things that way, too.
The Trump Administration undoubtedly removed all safeguards that way, like ignoring the Do Not Call list. Wasting everyone’s time!
So I didn’t see the notice, but everyone who liked my fall color pics on 10/9, thanks!
Baud
Quite lovely.
Mimi
The yellow tree in #3 looks like a honey locust. That’s what the city (Chicago) plants on parkway whenever it needs to replace trees. They grow quickly and don’t seem to mind being close to traffic. They turn yellow all at once and all lose their leaves just as quickly. That way the city can get all of those leaves off the street in a couple of passes of the street cleaners.
satby
@Jeffery: It’s the best color in a couple of years here, and I think it might be that September had higher rainfall than usual. Then a sharp cold snap, especially overnight. Now we have a few days of weather in the 70s again, so everyone can enjoy the amazing color that’s really hanging on. And I’ll be looking at getting some tithonia for next year!
delphinium
Lovely photos-can never get enough of the gorgeous fall colors.
Will be warm (70s) and sunny thru mid week here in Central NY before heading back to more normal temps by the end of the week.
satby
@Mimi: somebody in the last decade in S.B. decided to do the parkway trees in red maple hybrids like Autumn Blaze, the older trees are mostly sugar maples. With a lot of burning bush yard plantings too. Really makes for a pretty street scene in fall.
WereBear
@satby: It’s the maples which makes the classic fall. We have sugar houses locally. Which certainly contribute to spring!
Lapassionara
@sab: Tithonia is an amazing plant. Gets fairly big and is covered in red zinnia-like blossoms that bees and butterflies love. Also called Mexican sunflower, for some reason.
thanks for the photos. My red maple is finally sort of getting colorful. But nothing like these beauties.
oldgold
These beautiful photos have convinced me to plant a sugar maple – ASAP.
WaterGirl
@satby: That tree is stunning!
If Anne Laurie had posted this without sharing your name, with all this orange I would have known it was you! :-)
WaterGirl
My burning bush is really striking this year. Must be a good year for burning bushes.
It’s so interesting to me that different plants seem to universally thrive from year to year. This year it’s burning bush, last year was a great year for hydrangeas, etc.
oldgold
I have a big and very old convertible. Mostly it sits in the garage, but In the fall I like to take it out and look at the blushing trees. I call it my autumn – obile.
A Camus observed, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
beth
we lived in south bend for about 13 years and now live in asheville, nc which is right on the edge of the sugar maples’ range. we shared a giant sugar maple with our neighbors and it was always a show stopper that gave us a lot of opportunities for raking and mulching. this year has been jaw droppingly spectacular for color in western north carolina. it has been a glorious mountain biking and hiking and errand driving fall as the colors start at elevation and work their way down.
indiana was not the place for me but i enjoyed this glimpse of the best season of the city.
SiubhanDuinne
Have always loved this poem (I feel sure I’ve posted it in previous years, but it’s just too perfect right now):
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: I love that!
Hoosierspud
@satby: I am also from the Bend and got both my degrees from IUSB.
kalakal
How very lovely. I miss Autumn
Pro Tip: Don’t come to Florida for Fall colours.
kalakal
@SiubhanDuinne: I like that, it’s a new one to me, thanks.
I always liked Keats’ Ode to Autumn
poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/to-autumn
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
It’s lovely, isn’t it? We memorised it freshman year in high school (we were required to memorise one poem or literary passage per month all four years of h.s.). The Canadian poet Bliss Carman is hardly remembered now, but in his time he was exceedingly popular.
SiubhanDuinne
@kalakal:
Yes, the Keats is wonderful as well. Thank you for the link. The Romantic poets were fantastic at capturing the essence of each season.
Glad you like the Vagabond Song, and happy I could add it to your collection!
oldgold
Another Poetic hymn to autumn:
Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them — The summer flowers depart — Sit still — as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart. — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
WaterGirl
@beth: I think you used a different email address than usual, or maybe you are commenting from a different device.
Either way, you are out of moderation.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I have only memorized one poem in my life – and my mom made sure that all of her daughters did so.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Where is that from? It sounds like it’s either Dr. Suess or has some racist origin.
oldgold
@Baud: Gelett Burgess
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelett_Burgess
Baud
@oldgold:
Thanks. Hadn’t heard of him or the Goops series
SiubhanDuinne
@oldgold:
Very nice. If you hadn’t identified the author as EBB, though, I would have guessed Emily Dickinson.
oldgold
@SiubhanDuinne:
As Keats knew, the mellow mistiness wrought by the retiring sun of autumn is a time for reflection. “Where are the songs of Spring? Ay! Where are they?
And, often these reflections can turn dark. After all, winter is coming for all of us.
Of all places, I found some comfort from this looming dark chill from the Hobbit chronicler- Tolkien.
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the Frost.“
And finally, some hope from the unlikeliest of sources, Camus.
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.“
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.“
satby
@Hoosierspud: Still around?
oldgold
Hey, Satby, Did you comment at FDL?
satby
@oldgold: I love that quote by Camus!
@SiubhanDuinne: and that poem,
@oldgold: and again, that last poem from the Hobbit and quote from Campus.
Glad to have provided the inspiration for such great comments by everyone. @WG is correct, I’m all about orange 🧡
Torrey
@SiubhanDuinne:
This one hits home for me.
Or maybe, in view of its topic, it hits the road for me. Or the path. Or the trail. . . . Anyway, thank you for posting it. I wasn’t aware of this poet and am glad to know about him.
And thank you, satby, for the pictures. I enjoyed this view of the fall colors around where you are. I really do like that picture along the St. Joseph river bank. Very pleasant and restful view with the morning coffee.
StringOnAStick
To years ago almost to the day, we moved from the Front Range of Colorado to central Oregon, and the fall colors are different. This is mostly a pine tree area, but there are a lot more oaks and maples as street trees; yellow was dominant in Colorado however there’s a lot more reds in the fall here. I think I remember that Colorado’s more alkaline soil means that trees that are dominantly yellow in the fall are more likely to survive there.
The big cold storm ran through here Friday night, which made the fall pine needle drop go into hyperdrive thanks to the wind; filled two huge yard waste carts yesterday with ponderosa pine needles from one large tree. It froze last night so the veggie garden is looking increasingly sad as it thaws out. In Colorado you tend to get an early frost and then a few more weeks of warm, frost-free weather so it’s worth covering plants to take advantage of that. It looks to me like once is turns cold here in Bend, the veggie season is over and it won’t be going back to any extended warm period.
WaterGirl
@Baud: All I know is that it was part of a really thick book of poems and it had a blue cover. Not much help!
It was to teach table manners, and I don’t see any racist origins.
WaterGirl
@oldgold: Ah, I see that someone found it online.
I do not want to know if I memorized any of that wrong! :-)
Hoosierspud
@satby: I’m in Eastern Washington these days. I was in the Bend two weeks last month due to the implosion of my elderly parents.