Late summer under the hawthorn tree

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date ...’— William Shakespeare

SO far, we have had no summer at all. We have had some glorious days of autumn sun and hopefully we will have more. I remember a year when the kids were still swimming in November. But there’s an ominous bite in the air and autumn is on the wing, the leaves and the birds.

With every gust, another hundred leaves come down. Even with no wind, the beech leaves fall, spinning or fluttering like butterflies to the ground. But while beeches are brown, ash trees and alders are still green as summer. The sycamores are daily more ragged. The clusters of “helicopters” at the branch tips shake and will soon fly away to engender other sycamores.