One Last Fling

We were sitting in the parking lot of the Petro truck stop in Bordentown, New Jersey, when I decided to walk over to the trees at the edge of the lot to see if I could find some leaves to photograph.  I've been taking pictures these last few weeks while enjoying the change of colors in the Northeast and haven't really gotten exactly what I wanted.

Today I was trying to find leaves without blemishes.  I was unsuccessful.  Then again, only I would try to find a perfect leaf.  There were a lot of reds, a few golden-colored trees, and several that were still green.  I figured the leaf quality was either due to some sort of blight, or because the trees were so close to hundreds of trucks idling day after day.  That can't be good for a leaf's little lungs.

I often wonder about the pollution thing, specifically because it seems like the trees that line the interstate, where they'd get the most exposure to exhaust, change before the other trees in their groupings, the ones behind them.  I'm sure there's something to that.

Changing leaf color is a scientific thing, but it still seems mysterious to me.  I know it happens, I just don't know when.  And by when I don't mean the season in which it happens, I mean the moment in which it happens.

Have you ever noticed the trees in your yard, or neighborhood, or on the ride to work?  How one day, all of a sudden, boom! they're scarlet and muted gold, burgundy and bright yellow, hunter green and bright, bright tangerine.  The orange shades are my favorite fall colors by far.

I know there are all kinds of time lapse photography out there depicting the changing of the leaf colors, but I'm talking about looking at a leaf.  Just one.  I wonder when it goes from green to whatever color it becomes when it falls to the ground.  Did it gradually turn color like graying hair does, or did it just get all red overnight like when you were a kid and woke up with chicken pox?  I would love to track the change of a leaf - I never have, can't from the truck, and probably never will.  But I want to.

But since it's unlikely I'll do any of that, I guess I will just enjoy the colors like I always do.  I'll mourn the days when the trees look a little emptier, and not because winter is coming because I love winter, but because the amount of time the trees are ablaze with color is just never long enough.

It truly is a fling.  One of the good ones.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2013:  I Drive With A Soundtrack
2012: Who Doesn’t Love A Sunset?
2011: Personally Yours. But Not Mine.
2010: Sheltered Madonna And Child
2009: Breaking A Leg Doesn’t Always Mean Good Luck
2008: Showing Its True Colors, Even On The Cloudiest Day
2007: Priorities
2006: It’s All In The Cards
2005: A Blond Moment