'tis autumn

Someone in the Midlands must have made a killing selling London (or English) Plane Trees and Liquid Ambers to the community – yet another link for the last outpost to that British Empire. So ubiquitous are these trees in the area today that they give the Midlands its familiar autumn clothing – and fine clothing it is right now. Hardly a landscape in the area is not coloured by the distinctive multicoloured foliage of anything from a solitary specimen to groves of trees lining many a driveway. It is incredible how varied the leaves become as they lose their rich summer greens and prepare to shed, some turning to red and bronze, and others to various shades of gold, ochre and brown. It is no wonder the Americans call this season fall – for the carpets of plentiful dropped leaves add greatly to the beauty of the countryside. Growing some 30 to 50 metres tall they thrive in moist conditions, yet in cultivation appear also to handle fairly dry conditions too. Indigenously the Planes, known as the genus Platanus, are found only in the northern hemisphere, fossil records dating them back some 115 million years. The London Plane variety is actually a cultivated species, generally believed to be hybridised between the oriental plane and the American sycamore varieties.

Driving near the Midlands town of Mooi River on a bright sunny day this farm entrance driveway was a blaze of colour. The impossibly blue sky contrasted magnificently with the turning leaves. Having parked at the entrance to the road, a group of people was slowly wending its way towards me. Often accused of not including people in my photographs, I wanted to wait until they came into the closest of the sunlit breaks in the trees – and then, by unbelievable happenstance a visiting car pulled up behind me and I had to move away to let them in. Opportunity gone…..but it’s still a nice shot.