NOEN BILDER AV HØSTEN -- Some Autumn Pictures

SEASONS

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons -- it's probably my favorite, after summer. I have learned to enjoy Spring. When I was a kid, Spring always meant rain, and it seemed like a very dull season. But now I appreciate the changes a lot more.

Toadstools on an old fir log. The tree was over 100 years old when it was cut down. Taken just off the Cedar River Trail.

Winter is O.K., except we don't get much snow. Snow is a pain to drive in, that's true. But what is Winter without snow?

A lone Big-leaf Maple tree near a frog pond. Native maple trees here generally never turn red. Usually yellow to a deep, burnt orange color -- at least during good years.

Winter without snow is what we have here in Seattle during most years: 40 degrees (4C) and cold rain. Ugh. The bright spot is we will get a "pineapple express" now and then -- a remnant of a tropical storm -- that blows through maybe twice a Winter -- freshening the air and raising the temperatures from 35F to 55-60F (1C to about 16C).

And then, sometimes, we get snow. Usually an inch of wet snow that goes away the next day. But I digress... We're technically still in Autumn now, and the hills still show it in places. But the temperatures here are now Winter temperatures -- -3C to -4C at night (24-28F), maybe 5C during the day (48F).

The Cedar River on a bright Autumn day in mid- to late-October, 2015.

A DECENT AUTUMN THIS YEAR

This Autumn has been better than some. When we have good Autumns, the leaves on the trees are a nice shade of yellow and orange (not much red on the native trees here in the Pacific Northwest).

Oregon big-leaf maple leaves during a bright Autumn morning.

When we have poor Autumns, the rain and wind blow the leaves off the trees before you get a chance to really enjoy them. Or the leaves turn from green to a yellowish brown, and then to brown, and then they get blown onto the ground, and turn to a brown mush. :-)

Here you can see some of the native maple leaves are almost a burnt-red color, which is a bit unusual here.

So far this Autumn, we've had modest amounts of rain, and only two small windstorms. As I write this, in mid-November, the colored leaves are still on most of the deciduous trees, and some of the cottonwoods still have some green leaves on them

During Fall we often have cool looking sunrises. This one looked like a distant forest fire. I took all the pictures on this blog post with my Nikon L32 Coolpix snapshot camera.

My birch tree is usually the last tree in my yard to change color. It has just now started to turn yellow. Sometimes the leaves will darken to a rich shade of orange, and will stay on the tree until late December.

SOLOPPGANG -- Another Burning Sunrise in mid-October.

I've taken a few photos recently with my Nikon snapshot camera, and the shots in this post are an example of what the trees and skies looked like here in Western Washington this Fall.

A spectacular sunrise in October near Seattle. I aimed the Nikon L32 upwards so the metering would give the sky a more dramatic effect.

I included a few sunrise shots because we had a spate of spectacular sunrises this October. My new Nikon snapshot camera worked really well with the sunrises -- I was pleasantly surprised.

The closest thing I have to an Advent candle.

I hope all of you in the Northern Hemisphere had a good and safe Autumn this year, and for those of you who celebrate Advent, have a great Advent season.

CC