The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

All the leaves are brown… not!

I caught “California Dreaming” by The Mamas & The Papas on the radio the other day, the opening lines of which are:

All the leaves are brown
And the skies are grey


and I was immediately struck by the fact none of the trees around here had any brown leaves on them.

This is not because autumn hasn’t arrived – on the contrary, even putting aside it felt like summer finished sometime around June, winter is now very definitely just around the corner.

No, it’s because the leaves haven’t had the chance to turn brown before they’ve been blown off the trees.

All the leaves are yellowish green
And then gone


would be far more accurate, although admittedly it doesn’t rhyme or scan anything like as well.

But there’s no doubt, as I look out the window at the grey skies, strong winds and horizontal rain, California has a distinct appeal

12 comments

debra said...

We had a frost again last night, and it was pretty nippy this morning. At least I'm not in the NE US, where as much as 15" of snow is predicted. :-)

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the unusual occurrence there with sudden winter has something to do with climate change.
And jeez their already expecting the first blizzard back east? Amazing. Like the song I'm glad I'm in California...so long as it's not LA.

Anonymous said...

all my UK friends are saying the same thing about their weather...miserable to the extreme

west central Florida came through the summer without having a drought, a good thing...and no major hurricanes...fall is always problematic here, last year there was a nice change of color in the leaves...this fall not so much, perhaps we haven't gotten to fall yet

oh my, the Momas and the Popas, haven't heard that song in years...from way back when I was a wannabe hippie, but was actually a Mom in my own right (with no singing talent LOL)

angryparsnip said...

One of my all time favorite songs.
But the song should be...

All the cars are stalled
On the 405

I've been for a walk
on a smoggy day

Live in Southern California for 40 years, like it better when it was safe and warm. Even though I had to move away, I still miss parts of living there.

cheers, parsnip

Amanda said...

Oh yes, we left California a year and a half ago, and I still miss it every day and want to go back.

*she writes as it is snowing two days before Halloween...*

hope said...

I sort of feel like Kim...mostly because we had drought like conditions for most of the summer. Driving to work Friday I realized the reason I'm not seeing the leaves change is because half of them fell off this summer!

But those that hung in there are glorious!

Frankie said...

I love the Mamas And Papas. I blogged about the very same thing about a month ago when the trees really were brown around here. Don't they say something about great minds think alike? Music can be such a great pick me up especially on a grey day. Here's one for you... Simon and Garfunkel's Feelin' Groovy... That's a good one for a cold grey day. Have fun!

Hindsfeet said...

... : ) ...being a California girl myself, I can tell ya, Kim, the California dream is *way* overrated....I'd take Scotland anyday.....

...People forget that San Diego is actually a desert....so the only green you really see is on the cacti and palm trees and the irrigated bits.....I'll take a lush natural landscape anyday....

....anyway, just thought I'd ease your landscape envy a bit....the beauty I've seen in your photos *far* outweighs any I've seen in California...by a *long* shot...

: )

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I like the Mamas & The Papas, sometimes their songs are played on the radio here on Sunday mornings.

Just this morning my mother and I were talking about that weird thing happening to the leaves on the trees in other countries, no bright colours, leaves falling...suddenly...winter.

Kim Ayres said...

Debra - you could build a very big snowman with 15" of snowfall :)

Allen - One day I'll have to make it over to that side of America :)

Theanne & Baron - the most beautiful fall I ever experienced was in Canada when I was there on a student exchange. I finally understood why their national flag is a red maple leaf :)

Parsnip - having never been to California, I have no idea whether it could possibly live up to the hype :)

Amanda - I love the sun, and I love the snow. It's the relentless rain I have the most problems with...

Hope - good to know some of them are glorious :)

Frankie - I hate to say, but Simon and Garfunkel have never really done it for me. Maggie has a few of their albums though :)

Hindsfeet - I don't know whether you ever visit Resident Alien's blog, but Mary is the only person I know in Scotland who loves the constant rain - she's originally from the Californian desert :)

Guyana-Gyal - I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a place that is basically permanently summer. But it sounds like my idea of heaven.

Unknown said...

It was 70 degrees here today, but is suppose to be a bit chilly tomorrow. The leaves on our trees are bright red, yellow, and green. They don't get brown until they land on the ground, but we did have a lot of wind today. The leaves are rustling.

Kim Ayres said...

Despite living in Scotland for well over 20 years, I've never really got used to the fact that winter starts about one month earlier, and summer about 1 month later, than down in the southern part of the UK, where I lived the first half of my life...

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