Coming out of the bubble

Yesterday’s storm brought down virtually all the leaves that had dried, withered or changed color, so the forest looks almost green again. That won’t last as now is the time when the fall color change really takes off. Many of the leaves that came down were off tulip poplar trees and smaller saplings of almost any species.

My forest is mostly white and red oaks, with hickory and beech thrown in for variety.  The oaks are usually the very last tree to change color, and sometimes I even have a three-phase color change, with those trees hanging onto their leaves past the first killing frost. This year I am assured of at least a two-phase color change. Some years everything works together, and all the leaves change color and drop at more or less the same time. That hasn’t happened in a while and won’t happen this year either.

For now, I’m just glad to have some of the leaves down so I can see the sky over my cabin again.  The thick forest canopy of summer helps to keep the air around the cabin cooler than when I’m out of the forest, but even knowing that, I weary of living inside the “green bubble” of summer.  But today, I can see the end of this year’s bubble, and I know I will soon have the expansive view of winter around me instead.