Tree Following – September 2021

On a bright, sunny Sunday morning, I headed over to Rookery Park to take a look at the Avenue of Lime Trees for this month’s Tree Following. Personally, I don’t think September is necessarily the marker of the onset of autumn, but this particular morning certainly felt that way. The temperature was mild, despite the air cooling enough overnight to create a light dew on the ground. The days are getting shorter now, the sun lower in the sky, and the light had an orange hue that picked up any autumnal colours beginning to show in the trees.

The Avenue

The Avenue as a whole is beginning to look a little less verdant and a touch more tired:

The leaves are showing a little bit of damage from the year’s efforts…

…and the continuous rain of honeydew from the aphids has led to an accumulation of black mould on most of the leaves:

As the trees prepare for for the winter and beyond, you can see the the buds have already formed for next spring:

All that’s left for the trees to do is to toughen up those stems and drop their leaves. Then they’ll be ready to patiently sit out the winter.

Seeds

Since my last visit, the seeds that were hanging abundantly in pairs have been shed. The ground is littered with bracts, seeds and a few old leaves:

Presumably, some of the seeds will have been carried away on the wind, but many of them didn’t make it very far at all, and are lounging around at the base of the trees.

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Faces and Odds and Ends

There is, of course, some more artwork to display:

It looks pretty disgruntled to me; perhaps it’s the growth that’s appeared just next to his eye that is bothering him. In a slightly regrettable turn of fortunes, I think we might have run out of faces: for the next three months, we’ll be bereft of these funny fellows! All good things come to an end.

My wanderings were accompanied by the constant busyness of squirrels furtling around in the leaf litter and running around in the canopy.

Considering how tenacious they can be in gardens, the squirrels I encountered were fairly wary of my presence so I didn’t manage to get very close to them. Living in a public park, they’ve probably learnt to be cautious around people because they’re so often accompanied by dogs.

Here’s a quick photo to show the effects of the low sun:

That’s all for this month – thanks for reading! My Tree Following adventures are part of a wider group of Tree Following folks who convene over at the SquirrelBasket. Do pop over and take a look.

Cheerio!