All good things come to those who wait

It's been a long autumn and at first I was envious of the gorgeous colours I was seeing posted on the internet whilst looking out at my very green garden. But eventually everything has its hour of glory; it just so happens that here it is not all happening at the same time. So I have captured as best I can the changing colours over the past few weeks. My ornamentals were the first to turn and are now past their best, whilst finally our native trees are at their peak and the countryside is a mass of rusty browns from the oaks and blasts of yellow from the few poplars which still retain leaves and the hazels. Some trees are still green, some lost their leaves long ago. It's a nice mix and I'm now glad it took its time. Having so many leaves still on the trees in December will make winter seem shorter, somehow.

By the way, don't go thinking it's always sunny here just because you see blue sky in many of these photos. It's been the total opposite, but of course as soon as we have sun I am rushing out with a camera! 

Smokebush (Cotinus coggygria), the one that I think is 'Golden Spirit'.

Smokebush 'Royal Purple' with Horse Chestnut in the background.

My horse chestnuts have been hit by the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner this year for the first time. This causes the leaves to turn brown and drop and they look autumnal and sad during the summer months. I've seen this damage around here before on large trees planted in parkland, and when I was in England in October I saw many affected trees. However what green remained on the leaves still managed to change colour and by November they were looking a lot more attractive than they did in August! 

Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum),
also known as a Conker Tree.

Spindly ornamental Cherry (possibly Prunus subhirtella)
which only has a few leaves high up, so is hard
to capture them against the usual grey sky!
Here alongside a Lime tree (Tilia sp.) starting to turn yellow.

16th November and the yellow leaves on the far side of the pond
is a Poplar in amongst the more green Alders,
with Willows on the right.

My unknown variety Purple Sycamore drops its leaves early.
Here's one that got caught on the trunk!

20th November and first real frost and all of a sudden
the Horse Chestnut rained leaves down all day! You can see the
unfrosted leaves sitting on top of the frosted ones
that were already on the ground.

It was too cold so I took this view out of the window. :-)
That's the Horse Chestnut in the centre.

One bug I can always find even in winter are the Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus),
here on the trunk of a Lime (Tilia). Smokebush 'Golden Spirit' in the background.
The trees here are covered in lichen which generally is an indication of clean air.

Taken on a really gloomy day but still trying to capture the colour from the spindly
ornamental Cherry in the centre - few leaves left on it but you can see how lovely it can look.

Right now my Berberis is having its moment of glory.
This variety has purple leaves.

View from my bedroom window taken last Sunday when we had a rare sunny day!
Our common Oak is Quercus robur - bottom right looking very dark rusty coloured
and the others (centre background and to the left) just taking on these hues.
The yellowing tree left foreground is Hazel and these are looking bright in amongst them.

Also on Sunday - the trees at the far end of the lake
have turned a beautiful golden hue and it's not often
I get great reflections in a blue lake!

What's great is that it has been dry lately so finally my OH was able to hoover up all the fallen leaves with the ride on mower to add to our growing piles in the leaf mould bins, which in two years will turn into a fabulous soil conditioner. He's even been able to mow the lawns, so it's all looking a bit tidy - until the rest of the leaves fall!