Talking About the Weather

The weather has turned English at last. It does rain here, I'm convinced now. October was unusually pleasant, say the locals, but November is giving us a taste of what it is really like. I love it. I admit I'm enjoying a milder climate, rain and all. Fall happens at a different pace here. In Minnesota, as soon as colder nights set in, the trees all freak out at once, turn colors, and drop their leaves quick as they can because they're panicked---they know that up next will be blisteringly cold snow storms and weeks of sub-zero temperatures. Here, winter does not make quite the bold presence. Fall is a slow decay, I was never really sure when it started or ended. It happens by degrees--some trees and bushes change in September, some in October, and some are just changing now. They have their own time, like drops of water evaporating one by one. I took these pictures a few weeks ago. Now all that's left are the stems. The leaves have been rained on and trampled into a mat on the sidewalk. But I like to remember the way they were.