Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
---- Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"The photo is of an oak tree in my back yard. In a few weeks the golden catkins will fall, leaving light green leaves, which will darken over the summer and turn russet in the autumn.
Reposted from 2018 to add a closeup photo of the 2024 new foliage and catkins:
Image from ten days ago; the leaves are already green and catkins falling.
Here in Virginia, we joke that there are 5 seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter, POLLEN, and spring. Right now, our cars are all tennis-ball green!
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow Virginian, I can definitely confirm this. I drive an olive green car. During pollen season it's the color of a tennis ball, even as little as 30 minutes after being washed. And with 4 big, 50 year old oaks in one corner of my property, I don't dare open the bedroom windows to enjoy the spring air. I cleaned a solid 1inch of pollen out of the windows (between the screen and glass) yesterday.
DeleteHow much pollen do those catkins contain?
ReplyDeleteWatch, and find out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgRNK2EysI
Spring leafing out time is the pastel version of fall foliage.
ReplyDelete