greentapestry : "One Night Of Wind"

Sunday 6 November 2016

"One Night Of Wind"


"One thing alone changes rapidly at this time of year, and that is the colour of the leaves on the trees. They are as bright as flowers, and replace in gaiety the fruit we have gathered from the garden. But even this change is slow as compared with the rush of spring, when the leaves burst from their bud and clothe the trees in a flash of time. Since the beginning of September the leaves have been turning, varying in date with tree and weather. Weeks of calm will keep the leaves on the trees, as though they were forgetting to fall. They will be torn off in one night of wind. All the leaves by now have returned their sap to the tree, except the undramatic walnut which, like the ash, refuses to end it year in a blaze of colour, and lingers until the frosts strip off the leaves and scatter them at its base in a dirty, blackish green heap. The garden now is riotous in colour, in graduations of yellow and gold, bronze and crimson. We are reconciled at this moment to our smoke-grey, for it is an unequalled foil to these flaming leaves "

~  words from 'Four Hedges' by Clare Leighton.

~  illustration by Lena Anderson.

That "one night of wind" arrived in Cumbria on Friday night. Spending what will probably be the last weekend of the year in our caravan, I was awoken by a tremendous noise of the wind in the early hours. It took a long time to go back to sleep as the roof was hammered by falling autumnal debris. Come morning I peeked out of the door to see that in just one night almost all the glowing red leaves on my little acer had been stripped from the tree. Has that significant one night of wind arrived in your neck of the woods yet?

15 comments:

  1. We went to Thorp Perrow Aboretum last Thursday and commented that we had probably managed to get there on the last occasion when the trees looked wonderful.

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  2. First frost last night and my lovely red acer is looking rather sad.

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    1. Oh no Jessica - your acer was simply quite glorious :( Still waiting for our first frost.

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  3. That one night of wind flattened what was left of my garden some dahlias were still flowering but no more

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    1. Oh what a shame Ann. You tend to think that it will be frost that will finish off flowering plants but wind can be just as cruel. What amazed me was the sheer ferocity of the wind. It was really blowing an absolute hooley!

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  4. Yep sad to see one of my Acers now completely bare, the other just hanging on to some. But they have been the best ever this year and I've really enjoyed watching them change. Now they have a red carpet underneath which is still as pretty at the moment.

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    1. Oh that red carpet sounds rather attractive Annie. Sadly the leaves that fell off my tree looked as if they had been burnt to a frazzle by the wind.

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  5. The acer is bare, but there are still loads of other leaves to come! They look pretty lying on the ground, but I will have to start raking them up soon. :)

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    1. It's that time of year Cathy. Still when I'm raking I'm thinking that all those leaves are going to eventually turn into glorious worm rich leaf mould.

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  6. Although the walnuts have lost virtually all their leaves all the other trees and shrubs are still hanging on to theirs. The wind was dreadful last night - there was a tornado that just missed us.

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    1. You are certainly having some lively weather Christina. Talk about a near miss! I read about the tornado on the BBC website. I hope that your leaves give you pleasure for a while longer.

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  7. Didn't realise that about the wamnut and ash, Anna. Not especially windy here, but the cold of the last few days is proving to be the last straw for many of the leaves

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  8. don't know about the walnut Cathy but the ash in our garden seems to just gently fade out. It's still has some leaves on it now. No frost here as yet but there has been some only a couple of miles away.

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  9. The autumn colour has been wonderful this year. I think the leaves look almost as pretty on the ground as on the trees.

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All your comments are much appreciated and treasured. I wil try to reply to everyone who leaves a comment, but it may take me a few days, especially when I start spending more time in the garden and at the lottie. I know that you will understand :) I am sure that I will also visit your blog if I have not already done so. If you have any specific questions I will either reply to them here or you can email me at : thegreentapestry@gmail.com

Namasté

- Anna.