The Day the Leaves Fell Off

After living in New England for many years, it's hard to imagine a fall without brilliant colors. Since the Pacific Northwest is not known for its fall color, we were preparing for a boring fall. So we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Columbia Gorge has quite a few deciduous trees mixed in with the evergreens. The autumn colors are not quite as impressive as some areas in NE; but on the other hand, we didn't see too much color living in Somerville, while we pass countless forests every day on our drive to work here. Less brilliant, but more often.

One of the nice things about our house is that there are three 100+ year old walnut trees right in front, providing shade from the sun in summer and blocking the house from the road (which is about 75yds away or so.) But now that fall is here, the trees were slowly losing their leaves, leaving the house a bit naked. The leaves have been falling slowly for the last two weeks or so, but the trees were still mostly full. That is, until Thursday...

It has been getting gradually colder; 30F would not be an unusual overnight temp, though it still gets up to 50F during the day. When we awoke Thursday morning, I checked the outdoor thermometer to discover that it had reached its coldest overnight temperature yet - 22F, plenty cold for a hard frost. Looking out the window, you would almost think that it was raining, only the "flakes" were orange and shaped like leaves. When we left the house at 8am for work, Corinne stopped to take a few photos.


Thursday, 8am. The trees are still pretty well populated. (You can see the frost on the field in the background.)

We came home at lunch that day (since we left our packed lunch on the floor next to the door), and were shocked - SHOCKED - at the sight.


Thursday, Noon. Hey - where did all the leaves go?

In approximately 4 hours, all of the leaves fell off. I guess that means winter is around the corner...

- Mike (& Corinne)