Fall and fail

This time of year can be beautiful up here. Cool, crisp days, blue skies and gloriously colored trees. This shot of Berry Road in front of our house (we are on your right as you look at the picture) gives you an idea, although the colors are better than my little camera will capture.

The trees below form part of the treeline running in front of the house.  The gold one is at the corner of the yard by the drive.

 

This flaming bush is on the side of the house, near Tom's room and the guestroom. He and Helen put in a whole row of these alongside the house, but they won't show this color until next year. The red is very intense.

Most of the flowers are gone, but these asters (I think) are giving a bit of color by the sidewalk.

Tom says the white oaks are usually brown, but this year, perhaps due to the drought, they are almost vermillion. This one is out back. It looks brown in the photo, but there is enough red in the real thing to make it beautiful. We had some great reds in a couple of maples, but the color faded into brown before I got a picture.

But all is not beauty this year. The drought has had a serious impact, as these pictures of some of the young pines show. If you look at that pine in the background, it looks green but you can pick out some dead straw on it, too. Many of the trees look like that. I understand that we are ten inches below normal for rainfall.

 

 

So we have some fall and some fail. We won't know until next year how many of the trees will bounce back.