Nov 14: Uk - Watching a painting change

It was a dull day today and we got down to the tree late. The change in the tree is slow as the last few leaves linger on the tree.

So not much change there, but a few days ago Jeanie went down and painted the tree. Here are some pictures of the painting developing. The painting changed much faster than the tree, as you might expect. Finally there is a photo of the (almost) finished painting with me looking at the tree.


Tomorrow I'm hoping the southern hemisphere tree will have been photographed and will be here on the blog. I want to write a bit too about the fungus below (and occasionally above) the forest floor without which, I learn, the forest would hardly function at all. I've got some nice pictures and learned all sorts of fascinating facts to bore you with.

November 13 UK - How the leaves change

Dull day today and a few leaves are still hanging on, though there are none on the highest bit of the tree on the right now.

Here is a series of photos that shows how oak leaves change. In fact it was a scan (taking photos with a scanner is a good way to get close up of small things provided they are reasonably flat.)

The colour change is due mostly to the loss of the green chlorophyll in the leaves. The production of it stops as the days get shorter, it gets used up in producing sugars from the air and sunlight and it gradually disappears from everywhere except the veins. (See the second picture.) In summer the chlorophylls in the leaf are the main colours and mask everything else. When the chlorophylls go other colours start to show. At first they mix with the chlorophylls changing the tone of the green and producing yellows and then they appear as the main colour. Finally as the leaves dry the brown colour of the leaf appears.

Oak leaves turn to brown quite quickly (beech leaves stay yellow much longer). This as far as I can discover is because there is a lot of tannin in oak leaves. The yellow orange colours are caused by carotenoids in the leaves. No English native trees have the spectacular reds and oranges of American maples. These colours are caused by a process that turns the glucose in the leaves into another colourant known as anthocyanin. This process is driven by sunlight and the most spectacular colours occur in sunny autumns.

(This is all a regurgitation of the books and online stuff I have read - anyone who knows more please add your knowledge.) Meanwhile you can learn more in Wikipedia or, if you like your science simple, try Science made Simple.
Or try about.com which is great for all sorts of things.

Leaf fall seems to be caused by a completely separate process. Though it too is triggered by the shortening days. There are special cells called abscission cells at the base of the leaf and these swell in autumn and cause the leaf to break off levering it away from the twig.

I picked up a series of beech leaves here they are. It is the yellow of the beech combined with the browny orange of the oak that makes the New Forest in autumn look as beautiful as it is.
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Click on the big photo just below this and you will be able to see the oak and beech woods at their best. I love them.

Nov 12 - Three Week comparison

This blog has been going on for three weeks now and the changes have been big. From the solid green tree in the title picture to the almost bare tree where the sky shows through in the picture on the left.

The change has been slow day by day but over the three weeks the visible part of the process has almost finished.

So here they are in order three weeks ago (October 23), fifteen days ago (November 3), a week ago (November 8), yesterday (November 11), today November 12.

I've never really looked at a series of photos like this before and several things are surprising. The colour change is not the most noticeable thing (particularly on the oak tend to go from green to brown without ever being bright yellow. (It's the tannin in the leaves that does it - more of that soon). Most noticeable is the thinning of the leaves on the tree so suddenly we can see the twisted branches. The most noticeable colour change is on the ground replacing green grass with a bright browny-orange. Lastly the big changes are quick changing from a tree that is almost all green to one that is almost all bare.

Talking of big changes within the next few days the heading for this blog will become Oak tree in Autumn and Spring. The New Zealand oak is being photographed as I write this and daily pictures of that should come any day now.

Tomorrow I hope to show a series showing how a leaf changes colour.

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November 11 - Remembrance Day

A bleak autumn picture for remembrance day, the day when England mourns the dead soldiers of the two great world wars and the countless other little ones that we have been involved.

Funny thing about memory is that we hardly remember things at all. I could not remember the tree full of leaves like it is in the title picture if the picture were not there.

I always feel very ambivalent about remembrance day, perhaps everyone does.

It seems right to remember the poor young men who were killed (and the ones that they themselves killed on the other side), but the sentiments we hear rolled out on days like this seem so completely false. "Their name liveth for evermore" it says on the memorial. Yet we know it's not true. Can we name one person who was killed in the hundred years war? Even, only 150 years ago, the Crimean War? There certainly must have been plenty. And I certainly can't think of one. It seems to me that, in truth, people love wars. The thought of them is exciting, they "stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood". If people didn't like wars why would we have them? For wars, I think, there is no such thing as bad publicity. That's why remembrance days fills me with unease.

The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918. That is the time that is remembered, the time and day that the first world war came to an end. Strangely enough I have a sort of direct connection to it. My father fought in the first world war and wrote about it in a couple of books. On that day in 1918, aged about twenty, he was on leave in England, expecting to go back to fight in the next few days. He was so keyed up to fight that his first reaction to the news was disappointment. And the next bewilderment. I too am bewildered by Remembrance day.

Tomorrow back to oak trees and a look at how our tree has changed over the past three weeks. Not long till it is bare now. And not long till it is spring again either. Peace follows war just as surely as spring follows autumn and it will happen to the nasty little wars we are fighting at the moment. Let's hope it comes soon.
Finally a picture of thorns in the rain.

November 10 - Little by little the leaves go

Look at the leaves lying in the hollows of the ground, and inches deep under the oak tree itself. There's glory for you. It's been a duller day today with the wind not as strong as yesterday. Still not cold.

November 9 - the wind blows - but I can only photograph flying leaves by getting someone to throw them up!

Hi. It was really windy today and the leaves were flying about all over the place every time there was a gust of wind. However it was pretty hard to get them into a picture so I cheated. From now on this blog will have a zero tolerance policy to cheats unless they are me.

My wife painted the tree today and tomorrow we may have a painting on the blog. Meanwhile here are a few more of the pics we took today. First the tree from the other side next some nice colour in the leaf litter

November 8 - Rainy today and we suddenly notice a dead branch

Rainy and dull and the leaves keep falling. A big wind is supposed to be on the way and there should be a big leaf fall in the next few days.

Me and my wife have been photographing this tree for almost 3 weeks now, but today was the first time we noticed that there is an old broken branch sitting up in the crown. See the little photos which show first the break then the dead branch sitting on the live one, then the tip of the dead branch going down and to the left. I don't know if it will fall or will stay there till the branch below it dies. Either way I'm taking extra care as I walk around the tree! The branch must have broken a good time ago - there are no leaves on it and the actual break is the same colour as the rest of hte tree

I've found a great photo on Flickr of autumn leaf colours in close up. n Here is the link
http://rwanderman.com/index.php?showimage=391
What happens is that the holes on the leaf close and no more chlorophyll is produced and so bit by bit the other colours (that are there all the time) start to show. After seeing this I'm going to try a few close ups myself. Thanks Richard Wanderman - the guy who took the picture.