Driving around on Friday and Saturday I noticed the difference a day could make in regards to the foliage on the trees. Leaves changed in color quickly over the past week or so and now a good percentage are on the ground due to the rain and wind we had yesterday. Friday I was driving around the back roads of Kalamazoo and Allegan counties, the color was actually quite beautiful with a lot of orange and yellows. Saturday and Sunday a good portion of the leaves had fallen. This morning all the leaves are gone from the trees in the woods around my house.
Some look to nature for prediction of hard or mild winters. It is said when we have the trees change late in the fall into November it is a sign of a harsh winter. Copious amounts of nut and berry production is another sign, we had both this fall. The squirrels have been very active this fall gather walnuts and eating everything they can find. We put out an ear of corn every day and they strip the kernels off and take them to their nests. They also have been into our bird feeders more than usual – they even chewed holes into our finch feeders to get all the seed out – I have never seen them do that before. Walnuts are all over the ground, so much so they can become a slipping hazards. In past winters with these signs of nature we have had hard winters with a lot of snow.
We have a lot of moles tearing up our lawn this fall, more than we have had any other time in the past twenty plus years we have lived here. There is no folklore on moles and the grubs and insects they feed on in regards to winter forecasting. I applied grub killer yesterday on all the lawns including my mother-in-laws who lives down the road from us. The grubs will burrow deeper into the soil as the ground gets colder so now is the time to kill them. I found a good application of lawn fertilizer will chase the moles away, I am thinking they don’t like the smell of it.
We received a tenth of an inch of rain yesterday – that with the wind yesterday knocked off most of the leaves from the trees. Today and tomorrow will likely be the warmest days of the week before the bottom drops out. If we are lucky we may break 50° today and Tuesday.
As I write this the sun is making an appearance this morning signally a dry day before the clouds move back in later and the chances of rain increase overnight – we may even hear some thunder. Election day looks to be wet and windy with a 100% chance of rain so dress appropriately. Colder air moves in for Tuesday night on through the rest of the week with rain and snow showers.
Bring on WINTER!
Although the many myths and folklore dealing with weather are always intriguing to read, I have never bought into any of them. My grandpa always said leaves in November, no sledin in December, as in no snow in December. Seems every one back then had a correlation between weather and something else, but I’ve never believed any of them, just random circumstances brought together. Everyone’s views and experiences are different, but I’m pretty sure leaves on trees don’t dictate the weather.
In my neck of the woods I would say about 60% of the trees are now bare. I have a Red Norway Maple that is now around 50% bare and there is a large tree in the Maple family across the road that is now yellow but still is hanging onto many of its leaves. There are a lot of trees in my area that are in the Maple family that seem to hang on to their leaves late each fall, their leaves don’t have much color in them the leaves are smaller then most Maples but have a Maple leaf shape. And of course the woods across the way has many oak trees. I walk to and many times into that woods and while some of the Oaks have lost their leaves many have not.
Slim
I was surprised in the brighter colors this season. Now of course after all that wind the trees here are almost bare. I took plenty of pictures before.