the same but different

i am fascinated by the year to year variation in fall leaf colors. one year our maple is a blaze of orange, the next year it is entirely yellow. along my driveway right now is a maple with leaves so pale they look drained of blood. our mountain ash is usually a big yellow flame and this year it dropped its leaves with almost no transition from green to brown. i don’t know if it’s water, or cold, or nutrition, but it adds to my feeling, whether scientifically justified or not, that trees are near-sentient fellow beings, and that, in a way we are too out of touch to understand, they express themselves.

red oak leaves in autumn