It's all green

I was just out in the park after the rain, just enjoying looking around and walking in sunlight after days of gray and wet. The park, and the city as a whole, is still incredibly green, enough so that for the last week or so cattitude and I have been saying "It's still all green" as we walk to the subway in the morning This isn't quite true: here and there is yellow of a tulip tree, or a single oak going red-brown while the rest are still summer green. The Virginia creeper is brilliant red, and the ailanthus are all yellow. But we're pointing out individual bits of color on a green background, not a pattern of reds and yellows.

There aren't a lot of ailanthus here. What there's a lot of is the oaks, the hickory, the maple and tulip trees, and the firs. A few willows down by the river, which are quietly dropping leaves on windy days. Green leaves, not yellow. Birch trees in the hilly bits.

There's one tree in front of our building that always turns early, and that is coming up red, as always, but later than its usual. There are lush green lawns, grass and clover and late dandelion. Green reeds in the salt marsh. The maples are still green, and the ginkgos and locusts. The hawthorns are gorgeous from 20 or 30 or 50 meters away, green leaves above a hazy redness of berries. Day by day, it's pleasant, but this is late for it to look and feel like early autumn. I don't know if it's all going to go "whump" like a cartoon on November 1, or if it will flow as usual, but later.

A fortnight ago, I was walking downtown with Cattitude on our way back from dinner, looked idly at a street tree and then said "wait a minute." Two Callery pear trees, in bloom, as if it was April. I suppose that fits a year that started with ornamental cherries blooming in Chinatown in January, before it really got cold.

Memo to self: climate is a long-term average. Weather is what actually happens, day by day.

It's all green

I was just out in the park after the rain, just enjoying looking around and walking in sunlight after days of gray and wet. The park, and the city as a whole, is still incredibly green, enough so that for the last week or so cattitude and I have been saying "It's still all green" as we walk to the subway in the morning This isn't quite true: here and there is yellow of a tulip tree, or a single oak going red-brown while the rest are still summer green. The Virginia creeper is brilliant red, and the ailanthus are all yellow. But we're pointing out individual bits of color on a green background, not a pattern of reds and yellows.

There aren't a lot of ailanthus here. What there's a lot of is the oaks, the hickory, the maple and tulip trees, and the firs. A few willows down by the river, which are quietly dropping leaves on windy days. Green leaves, not yellow. Birch trees in the hilly bits.

There's one tree in front of our building that always turns early, and that is coming up red, as always, but later than its usual. There are lush green lawns, grass and clover and late dandelion. Green reeds in the salt marsh. The maples are still green, and the ginkgos and locusts. The hawthorns are gorgeous from 20 or 30 or 50 meters away, green leaves above a hazy redness of berries. Day by day, it's pleasant, but this is late for it to look and feel like early autumn. I don't know if it's all going to go "whump" like a cartoon on November 1, or if it will flow as usual, but later.

A fortnight ago, I was walking downtown with Cattitude on our way back from dinner, looked idly at a street tree and then said "wait a minute." Two Callery pear trees, in bloom, as if it was April. I suppose that fits a year that started with ornamental cherries blooming in Chinatown in January, before it really got cold.

Memo to self: climate is a long-term average. Weather is what actually happens, day by day.

Someone wanted Dystopia

Someone on my friends list complained that the Dystopia scheme is no longer available. Running through comments in news, I found that it is, if you wave the right incantation at your browser. I suppose this is what they mean by "deprecated."

Someone wanted Dystopia

Someone on my friends list complained that the Dystopia scheme is no longer available. Running through comments in news, I found that it is, if you wave the right incantation at your browser. I suppose this is what they mean by "deprecated."