Posted on by susurrus

The Gravity Pull Of Plants

Acer leaves with pink tips in autumn

My home town has many rows of Victorian terraces and to get to any of my countryside, wood or park walks, I go through some of them.

While not exactly lying higgledy-piggledy, each batch of terraces forms its own grid dictated by the hillside rather than a uniform plan. Walkers are offered an alternative way at nearly every corner: all being even, my choices are dictated by plants. I visited these three along my walk yesterday.

Brown leaves fallen from a tree

It’s rare I pass any of my favourite townsplants without slowing down or stopping for a moment to see how they are. I get a few looks from passers-by, and it’s not unknown for the homeowner to shoot out to check what I’m doing, but why wouldn’t you pause?

The tree leaf picture is something of an embarrassment, because I don’t know what tree it is. I’d have guessed beech, but something makes me doubt. The autumn leaves are chocolate-charcoal with lighter backs.

Regular readers may remember my hydrangea path to the pie shop. It’s just one of several hydrangeas I keep my eye on. This is another:

Hydrangea with red and orange autumn leaves

Its flowers are an appealing mix of shades and are rain-speckled by this stage, but it was the orange-red autumn foliage I most wanted to capture.

I could add tens of others, but you get my gist. It takes me longer to get around than if I whizzed by, but my reward is a richer experience.

Shared for Becky’s WalkingSquares and Dawn’s Festival of Leaves.

47 Replies to “The Gravity Pull Of Plants”

  3. This is a lovely post, reminding us to take notice, even yards from home. I see what you mean about the ‘beech’ leaves. They ALMOST are, and yet …

    1. I can’t claim I was as familiar before the pandemic. I remember walking around feeling quite desolate as if there were no plants to see and I thought the woods had no flowers. It turned out they had hundreds of thousands, but they were mainly very demure.

  9. townsplants ā€” love that! Makes them part of the communityā€™s fabric! How inclusive!! šŸ§”šŸšŸ‚šŸŒ¾

      1. Thank you for making the trip and bringing us all along! šŸ§”šŸ’›šŸ˜ŠšŸŒ»šŸšŸ‚šŸŒ¾šŸ’›šŸ§”

    1. I just need more forests locally to bathe in. Parts of our area would naturally be temperate rainforest. There are tiny pockets still, giving tantalising glimpses of what must once have been.

    1. I’m on nodding terms, although I do have a favourite tree I say ‘hello’ to but only after making sure nobody is looking. šŸ™‚ It’s under threat inside a fence on a housing estate that is being built and I am so relieved when it is still there. I am pretty sure its days are numbered.

        1. It’s atmospheric, leaning over a grave-like hole in the ground partly covered by a big stone slab. Perhaps they are scared to go near it! They’ve already taken down another one I photographed many times.

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