Colour our World, Colour us Grateful

 Here's a small sampler of the joyous vivid colours that surround us at this time of year.  If there was ever anything for which we should give Thanks, it would be this display.  Think on it -- the colours come when the trees remove the chlorophyll from their leaves, moving the sugars and nutrients out of the leaf 'factories' and back down to the roots where they can be safely stored during the frozen winters.  As the chlorophyll retreats, the vivid colours -- these stunning reds, oranges, yellows, burnt russet -- are revealed.  The tree didn't need to do that. It could have simply let the leaves turn a dull brown and fall off.

We are grateful, thankful, that the trees don't just brown and fade. As summer ends, autumn comes into its own.  There are not many places in the world where this incredible display of colour is on show.  

I took these photos on Thursday, hiking in our back fields here at Bondi.  Some of you will recognize the old settler's stone wall. Some will spot the frisbee golf targets.



Some will recognize Taffy, checking out the wolf scat left along this portion of the trail that many will recognize as part of the Hawk Lake Ski trail, just after it splits away from Toboggan Hill.






All our guests have driven past this tree -- it is right across from the Bell utility box, just before the junction to the Port Cunnington Road and Firehall.  In its summer greens, most people just drive on by.  This time of year, it will stop you in your tracks.












The colours blend beautifully, with the yellow leaves of the birch and the deep greens of the conifers accenting the maples' reds.  This is just on top of the hill, not far from the solar panels.








This shot I just love, because of the way the sugar maple is entwined in the pine tree like a bouquet.















And this last shot was taken from the road, across from the Oxtongue Craft Cabin, looking downstream to one of the beaver dams.  The dam is that line of green across the bottom third of the photo. The trees are reflecting in the pond caused by the dam.