From “The Arrival of Fall” by Lauren Springer, in The Writer in the Garden by Jane Garmey:
“Autumn is a time when warm color and rustling sounds resonate throughout the plant world….
“In the deciduous woodlands of the East and Midwest, winter spreads down the land from north to south, from highland to lowland, rolling a carpet of foliage color over the landscape before it. The land, so serenely green for all those months, suddenly looks like an infrared photograph….
“On the grasslands of the prairie and plains, the tired gray-green and buff of late summer take on richer amber, sienna and rust tones as the foliage and seedheads of the grasses ripen. Late-blooming wildflowers, predominantly deep golds and purples, attract sleepy butterflies and bees, while more energetic birds frenetically gorge themselves on seeds before the first snow cover blankets the land.”
This is the eighth post in my autumn series of new photos. The previous seven posts showed images from my visits to Oakland Cemetery, and the galleries on this post (and one more, to follow shortly) are from Grant Park. The park is a 131-acre woodland, established in Atlanta in 1883, near the center of the neighborhood by the same name and a short walk from my home.
I took all the photos in these galleries on the last weekday in November, substituting Black Friday for an Orange-Red-Yellow Friday, shortly before the neighborhood trees shed most of their leaves during three days of high winds. This first gallery includes photos from the north side of the park; on the map above, that’s the corner at the top where Sydney Street and Park Avenue meet, near one of the park’s entrances. The homes slightly-visible over the hill and through the trees (in the first four photos) are on Sydney Street; and the roadway showing in the third, fourth, and hidden in the fifth image leads, all mysterious-like, deeper into a park section darkened by massive elm and oak trees (collectively referred to (by some people) as “elk trees“). I composed most of these images to include the street lamps along the roadway, to help emphasize the height of the trees by comparison. The street lamps, I estimate, are 10 to 12 feet tall; the surrounding trees, therefore, are very very much taller.
I took this series in the section that runs along Cherokee Avenue; on the left side of the map, you can see where Cherokee traces the entire east side of the park. Orange and red leaves were still abundant, even as you can see there’s a thick ground-cover of those already shed.
Further along the Cherokee Avenue side of the park, near an entrance at Georgia Avenue, I found these bright yellow surprises. Most trees with yellow leaves, having turned several weeks earlier, were bare by the end of November, but the one in the first three images “stole the show” framed as it was near the entrance. The last three images show a different tree nearby; still turning from green to orange and yellow.
Since we’re approaching the Christmas holiday, I imagine you’ve probably been wondering where Christmas gnomes come from. I know I have.
Mystery solved. I found this gnome nursery at the bottom of a hill underneath a giant pine tree, where pointy gnome heads were starting to emerge from this thick bed of pine needles. One baby gnome did pop out and scurry up the trunk of a tree; I got a shot but then I accidentally deleted it during post-processing. Sorry about that; you’ll just have to trust me. 🙂
My previous autumn 2019 photo mash-ups, and a few other posts with new fall color photos, are here:
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #1
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #2
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #3
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #4
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #5
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #6
Autumn in Atlanta: Photo Mash-Up #7
Four Small Signs of Early Fall
More Small Signs of Early Fall
Even More Small Signs of Early Fall
Burnt Orange and Singed Pumpkin
Thanks for reading and taking a look!
