Thursday, May 21, 2015

Spring Trees and Skies

I thought I would specifically take pictures of certain trees in all four seasons, so I'll end up with comparison shots.  My benchmark is picking trees that look spectacular in mid-October.  So here are a few of the trees that will be in brilliant fall colour in five months, as they look today in spring.

These are two of my favourite mid-October trees.  Having observed the fall colours for several years now, I know which trees will look best.  Now I can do some comparison shots.

This tree, just down the road from our house, turns brilliant red in the fall, .  If you look closely it's really two Sugar Maples intertwined a bit, with the leaves in spring slightly different shades of green.

These are the young maples regenerating quickly, just at the entrance to the woods where I frequently go walking.  The trail in is on the right end of this picture.

Just down the road are another two large Sugar Maples in a fencerow.  When I think of summer, fall and winter pictures, I have lots of time to take those, though only about 3 weeks in the fall.  But the window for spring pictures when the leaves are still bright green like these, is incredibly short - really just a few days.

It's actually the three younger and shorter trees in the foreground here that turn the brightest colour.  The two trees in the background that look half dead are White Ash, which are still barely unfolding their leaves.

And across the street is a cluster of large Basswood trees that are not quite as far out yet, but turn a nice colour in the fall too.  The background trees in the lower right are White Ash again.

To give you an idea of how varied the leaf growth is at the moment, this is a picture of the fencerow behind part of our garden.  The trees on the right in leaf are White Birch (planted), and the tree on the far left is a Sugar Maple.  But in the middle are my Butternut tree (its trunk behind the shed), a Cherry starting to come out in leaf, and another White Ash where the buds are barely opened.  Observing the seasons more closely to describe in the blog has opened my eyes to patterns I never saw in previous years!

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26 comments:

  1. Spring certainly is bright and beautiful there!

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  2. Beautiful colors… so nice to have leaves on the trees again.

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  3. Wow what a blue sky that is. It is the bluest sky I've seen. Gorgeous.

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  4. You use your photos well to illustrate changing seasons.

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  5. I love the electric bright green color of new spring leaves!

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  6. I can really imagine the great fall colors these trees will be wearing!!

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  7. How vivid those colors are! I especially like the greens at the beginning of spring.

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  8. They look pretty good right now to me, so I can't wait to see them in the fall.

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  9. Beautiful trees. I love the green trees against the pretty blue sky! Lovely images. Happy Skywatching, have a great weekend!

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  10. Great observations of the trees, and I look forward to the comparisons this fall!

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  11. I haven't been following you long, but I already feel a certain attachment to your butternut tree. I'll enjoy the seasons along with you. Yesterday at our annual picnic of the Trailblazers, I pulled up your trillium picture from Old Baldy to share. Everyone was amazed at their profusion. :-)

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  12. Lush & lovely springtime! Nice photos.
    Please come by http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2015/05/textures.html and link up for this week's Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday). Hope you'll drop by each week!

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  13. My husband loves the look of the shiny new leaves.

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  14. Beautiful photos!
    I think I have a Basswood here. I've got to get a book to help me ID trees.

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  15. Nice to see these examples in spring leaf. The greens against the blue sky are beautiful

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  16. so very beautiful in spring
    and i am sure gorgeous in autumn

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  17. Lovely photos. It is fascinating to see the bright green leaves shimmering in the sunlight. Very interesting write up. Your post is an education for me.

    Best wishes

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  18. Our big trees are looking good now too.. I can't tell you (because I truly do not know) which season I love the most. I love Fall and the colors ---but I also love Spring and all of our Spring flowers......

    Great group of pictures.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  19. Isn't it great to see everything turn green...well, almost every tree.

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  20. Nature's first green is gold...

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  21. I think I love the trees in fall the most- then spring..just to see the new leaves coming out. You have a beautiful back yard.

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  22. beautiful trees but i do not think i have ever seen a bluer, prettier sky!!!

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  23. Aren't trees beautiful? Amazing. Varied. Sometimes majestic; sometimes pretty; sometimes a little ragged and misshapen - but always with a story in their branches.

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  24. Aren't trees beautiful? Amazing. Varied. Sometimes majestic; sometimes pretty; sometimes a little ragged and misshapen - but always with a story in their branches.

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  25. Aren't trees beautiful? Amazing. Varied. Sometimes majestic; sometimes pretty; sometimes a little ragged and misshapen - but always with a story in their branches.

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