Colors Have Arrived In North Texas In The Middle Of Tornado Damage

In reverse order of Spring moving north, colors move south at about the same rate of speed---20 miles per day. Just as learned in 5th grade biology, nature is based on math and formulation of equations, but in science, that is what you want. You want that reassurance that nature is still running a tight ship, which she does. Never-the-less the colors for another season has arrive and they are spectacular already.

The city crews are out picking up the miles and miles of tree branches and trunks between the streets and sidewalks for the second storm of the season. I have seen hugh tracks of vacant land filling up with semi-high stacks of branches with brown leaves now as they have died on the limbs that were fallen. I wonder sometimes how colorful those branches would have been had they not been dropped by the tornadoes that stuck a path of destruction across north Texas---especially the Metroplex area with 10 confirmed tornadoes that dreadful night of the outbreak.

One tree that I miss so much is the sugar maple. While our Oaks pretty much match the vivid colors of the maples, its those wide and broad leaves that shine and glimmer with color this time of year. Halloween  in the Great Lakes have that smell of burning leaves. Yeah! it's illegal to burn them, but somehow those curbs of leaves seem to just break out in flames. It must be the ghost of Halloween past. Free trees are being made available for planting to help rebuild the massive loss of trees this year. It will be a few years before they start to show color to full scale but planting trees has always been my thing. There are three six-footers on my porch now Hopefully, they will be ready to plant next year. The Maple that I planted when my son was born is a towering majestic piece of timber today at 49.

Shortest Day Approaches

It is a true statement:" Time waits for no man." Where it goes is an enigma for sure. Winter begins in less than a week. Christmas Day comes in ten days. New Years arrives in just over two weeks. It makes no matter whether I'm ready or not, so the past few days found me at the lake and sitting at a picnic table with my health snack. I got my cardio walk in and just enjoyed the nearly perfect weather. That part changes tomorrow as the first of several cold fronts arrives and kicks the temps back down to a more normal winter level right on time.

Two weeks ago, I watched the cormorants begin flocking and flying their 'V' formations over the lake. They have been happy campers but know with their keen circadian rhythm that the coldest weather this season is about to arrive. Currently, when the cormorants or pelicans or sea gulls or egrets can't been seen, I can usually find them in their second or even third place were they hang out because of the change in fish whereabouts. In a way, they are just like us. They are creatures of habit. But the call of the wild beckons to fly south. They will be back in the spring after they disappear and can not be found in any of their favorite trees or log branches in the water.

A feather floats with the leaves on the water's surface.

A man walks his dog near Winfrey Point

White Rock Rowing Club sorts gear on one of the club's docks.

Click on any picture to enlarge. It's okay. You won't break anything.