It does not seem to have been a particularly good year for leaves. Around our way the autumn colours are not spectacular & leaves on the ground are mostly wrinkled & sorry for themselves
There is one exception. Many of the sycamore leaves which cover the stone staircase leading from the lane up to the road are red – something which I cannot remember seeing before
The steps usually stay quite dry there, sheltered as they are by the trees, & I usually gather up a bunch of leaves for home decoration. They are mostly quite yellow, with just a few chestnut browns to add contrast, but this year a good 5-10% are a lovely warm red
Paul Simons had an interesting piece explaining that we need warm sunny days & crisp but not freezing nights. Essentially what we then get are sugars cooked into anthocyanin pigments – just what give strawberries their colour.
So now the jar of leaves will give an extra small pleasure – the memory of strawberries in July
