The last of the falling leaves

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

...

Extract from sonnet 73 by by William Shakespeare (1609)

As I walked up Rue Caulaincourt on Sunday I marvelled at the pavement which was strewn with fallen leaves. These small green leaves have been clinging on much longer than most, but now it's time to let go. The last of the leaves are falling. Winter is coming. Sigh.

Red leaves in the Montmartre Cemetery.




Red leaves and a cat.

Orange leaves in Oxford.



Yellow leaves.

Yellow leaves and a crow.


Yellow leaves and some spikes.


A beautiful tree in Parc Monceau.


A carefully swept pile of yellow leaves in our street.

This morning when I passed this tree I noticed that somebody has been playing with those carefully swept up leaves. The work of a Parisian road sweeper is never done.

Blenheim Park, Woodstock

It's the school holidays at the moment and we just spent a few days in the UK. Yesterday afternoon we went to Woodstock to go for a walk in Blenheim Palace's 2100 acres of parkland. The park was breathtaking. Needless to say the autumnal colours are as good in the UK as in they are in France.

These were the first trees we came across. They had obviously been trimmed recently (by livestock apparently. Sheep were in this field).

When I studied architecture a hundred years ago, we used ink pens to draw. If we were feeling a little bit extravagant we would buy Letraset lettering, transferrable lettering that you would painstakingly 'transfer' onto your drawings letter by letter (yes, it was as bad as it sounds). If you were feeling positively rich you would buy Letraset trees and people.  These trees here look a lot like Letraset trees.

Yesterday the sun was struggling to shine through the clouds.

I loved this tree with its' silvery bark and caricature shape. It's a beech tree, but looks a bit like a eucalyptus tree, (Bruce)

The lake and trees beyond looked beautiful framed through the trees.

Not to mention the trees beyond the trees.

I loved the silvery grey roots of the beech trees...

...and the bridge across the lake, framed in fiery orange and yellow.

And here is some painting with trees.

And then to finish off, a bit of architecture.

More pictures of Blenheim Park can be seen here. Just gorgeous.