Leaves Kept Falling...

Below are some photos of the autumn changes in one and the same huge old horse chestnut tree through the month of October - until the very last few leaves still hanging on, one week into November...

11 October 2024

18 October 2024

20 October 2024

25 October 2024

8 November 2024

The very last leaves still left on this tree yesterday. I think the reason leaves on this branch stayed on longer than all the rest is that they're very close to the lamp post on the other side of the path (you can see it in the 2nd and 4th photos). I've noted the same thing with other trees as well: Branches very close to the light from the street lamps tend to keep their leaves longer!

Skywatch Friday / Weekend Reflections

 

 

Yesterday afternoon was one of those days with a clear blue sky, and the river still like a mirror. Most trees have dropped all their leaves now, and the reflections that caught my eye on this walk were all of bare branches.

 

On my way back I walked another way, and now these tall trees below stood out to me because they had not yet dropped their leaves. Having had a closer look, my guess is they must be some kind of oak, even if the trees as such aren't of the shape that I associate with the "usual" kind of oak. I do know that some oaks hold on to their brown dry leaves throughout winter, though, and don't drop them until it's time for them produce new ones.

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Street/Reflections

Time Will Tell

 

I've fallen behind with blogging over the past few days - somehow Monday through Wednesday seemed to be totally dominated by the election "on the other side of the pond"; even though no one over here could do a thing about it but pray or keep fingers crossed. (Or whatever one prefers. Actually, here in Sweden we "hold our thumbs" rather than cross our fingers. Taking either of those two expressions literally would probably make simultaneous writing just about equally difficult, though!) Before actual results came in, there were of course endless speculations uttered. My impression is that most people over here were hoping for Kamala Harris to win, and deplore that she did not. But at least (in my opinion) the speech that she gave afterwards was a dignified contrast to the chaos that broke out four years ago when the loser did not accept the outcome of the democratic election...

Perhaps a quote from Alice in Wonderland may throw some light on it all? (Or not! LOL)

And the moral of that is—‘Be what you would seem to be’—or, if you’d like it put more simply—‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.’” — Alice in Wonderland, The Mock Turtle’s Story

Walking into town on Monday (and again today) I noticed this damaged tree in the park. I don't know what happened to it, but my guess is that a branch got broken off in the storm last week. I'm wondering whether they think the rest of the tree can still survive, though? I guess only the future can tell!

All Saints' Weekend

 

On Friday (All Saints' Eve) it was still too windy in my opinion to find it worth while to go and make any attempt to light candles in the cemetery. So I put that off until Saturday afternoon; which was calm and sunny, but almost wintry cold. 

Not a lot of leaves left on the trees after the stormy days earlier in the week - but in some places, the sun did its best to highlight what was still there.

In the background behind those golden leaves above is the cemetery chapel - which is also kept open on this day, so that people can go inside and light candles, or search for names in the registry book (of people who had their ashes scattered in the memorial grove outside), or just sit and meditate for a while.

 

 

Family grave from my mum's side of the family (her grandparents). Someone had already lit two candles there - probably the day before, as both of them had obviously got blown out by the wind very soon after being lit... I lit those again, and added two of my own. 

 

(Today I passed by there again, and then all four candles had burned half way down but had then been extinguised by wind or rain. I lit them again and hopefully they burned for a few hours more.)

At home, I struggled to wrap my balcony bench "properly" (legs and all) in its winter covering (a plastic tarpaulin); and put it back out again, with the strawberry box hibernating underneath, inside the "tent"... 

 

 It has worked every winter before, so hopefully it will work again. (I'll be keeping an extra eye on it if we get more storm warnings, though...)

Another Windy Day

 

Quite strong winds today as well, but in the afternoon the clouds were breaking up, and around 4 pm I took this photo from my balcony. (The clouds still moving rather fast across the sky, from the west towards the east.) Before that, I had been out for my usual Friday recycling walk (i.e. taking a bag of packaging material etc to the nearest recycling station for that kind of stuff). Although the wind had died down a bit compared to yesterday, I still had to hold my bag in a firm grip on the way there ;) On the way back I also popped into the small neighbourhood greengrocer's shop for a few things. All-in-all I was only out for perhaps 20 minutes, but that felt like enough today. 

Skywatch Friday