3 November 2024 – This side of the equator, in this latitude range, deciduous trees are well into their annual sylvan strip tease.
They shed their leaves…
and shimmy through the winter in their bare branches.
Some trees strip from the top down, clinging to their knickers…
some strip from the bottom up, clutching their camisoles….
and some fling off their leaves any old which-way.
Some, like these front-door guardians, hang on defiantly, still full-dressed and glowing bright…
while others are already full-naked, brown/black against the sky.
The evergreens are wonderful and rich, I love their year-round colour, their generous textures and dimensions…
but… oh… just look at the stark, bold power of this naked silhouette. (Not to mention its effortless demonstration of fractals. Why beat your brain with formulae, when you could just go look at a tree?)
I am mostly tree-struck, on this walk, but as I weave my way back from Sahalli Park I notice some other things as well.
A few left-over Hallowe’en pumpkins (so three days ago!)…
the punchiest little free library ever, tucked into its embracing greenery…
(where to my amazement I am able to pick up a copy, in its original French, of the 1948 landmark political/ cultural/artistic Québec manifesto, Refus global)…
and, framed by bare branches (L) and evergreens (R) and a crimson vintage Mount Pleasant home, ‘way over there across Burrard Inlet and high on Grouse Mountain…
the season’s first snow.
Snow!!
I head home, chilled fingers suggesting it really is time to dig out some gloves, and stop at the door long enough to pick a few of the last surviving marigolds in our street-front display.
Once inside…
I put together a posy.
And then I go hunting my gloves!
WALKING WOMAN 
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
/ 4 November 2024I love your description, Penny. A very enjoyable post. I hope you found those gloves.
icelandpenny
/ 4 November 2024Yah, I’ve got my gloves. I find this weather invigorating & as you point out in your own posts, we so badly need the rain. And like you, I look from my sea-level position up the mountainsides, and see snow above…
Christie
/ 4 November 2024Hehe, I just got a new pair of gloves, they become very handy these days😍
icelandpenny
/ 4 November 2024And I found my gloves! Just visited your blog and just subscribed — you go all my favourite Ontario places and thanks to you I can visit them again. I’m just back from an e-visit to Manitoulin Island, via your Cup & Saucer Trail post. Oh, the memories.
Christie
/ 4 November 2024So glad I could bring you back fond memories from Manitoulin Island. There are so many beautiful spots for such a small island🥰
Thank you for coming along, wishing you a lovely day! xx
icelandpenny
/ 7 November 2024ahh, and now i’ve just wallowed in your photos of autumn-rich trees reflected in those Shield-country lakes…
Christie
/ 7 November 2024You are so sweet Penny! xoxo
Nancy
/ 4 November 2024lovely post!
Cecilia Mary Gunther
/ 7 November 2024Just the perfect walk amongst the leaves with the final warning of winter. So lovely. I especially liked the one of the feet striding through leaves.
icelandpenny
/ 7 November 2024Those feet are permanent, since they’re in the photo at the top of the blog on the website — but I like that photo too, it’s good memories of walking the canal path toward Wigan in England, while trekking with family
Mary C
/ 7 November 2024Great theme! I like the tree that is defiantly clinging to its bright leaves…. perhaps coyly?!
icelandpenny
/ 8 November 2024thanks! I found myself on a roll…
icelandpenny
/ 4 November 2024Many thanks! I am honoured!