It’s the time of year when all the blogs and social media feeds of the northern hemisphere are filled with spectacular photos of trees and leaves in wonderful autumnal colours – all warm red, rust and russet, yellow and orange vermilion. Personally, I have a bit of a problem with this.
I don’t deny that the leaves turn colour. But it seems that when I stop to take a photo of what looks like a promising heap of leaves, on closer inspection it’s actually a muddy pile of decay, quickly turning into mulch.
True, there is occasionally a single gloriously bright leaf that stands out from its surroundings and demands to be photographed.
But photography reveals its flaws and blemishes and even tweaking the image in Photoshop tends to result in no more than a hint of what I remember seeing.
That said. I was brought up in London suburb and my heart can still leap with pleasure at the myriad shades of colour in a redbrick wall. So I think I’ll settle for this as my “autumnal colours” image. (Though, once again, the reality is far more attractive.)
don't confuse the narrator 