Thursday 6 December 2012

Provençal Autumn

It's now officially winter.

The Cork Oak trees have donned their drab brown winter foliage.  They will keep their dead leaves through the winter months, until new shoots push them off in the Spring.  Maybe the old foliage protects the leaf buds from the cold?
The ground is frozen solid in the mornings, thaws out for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and then starts to freeze again around four.

It's time to look back over our first Provençal Autumn.

We had no idea what to expect.  When we arrived at the start of October, everything was still very green.
Now, there's a lot more brown in the picture, although the evergreen trees still add quite a lot of green.
We were watching out for signs of Autumn everywhere
and got excited at every hint of red
no matter how small or how distant!
There were yellows popping up in the middle of the greens
like this tree beside an old church.
And that was how it went for ages.  Random hints of Autumn, like these sloes
or a single bright yellow vine at the edge of a vineyard.
or a tree fighting hard to stay green despite the cooling nights.
The cork oaks started to go a bit yellowish-brown
we had a spell of mild, foggy weather
which was ideal for growing mushrooms!
but overall, the forests were slow to change.
Then, within the space of a week, temperatures dropped and there were dramatic changes everywhere.

There was every shade of yellow
 and orange
set against the background of newly sprouted crops.
 As the nights got colder, the colours intensified
 Every road was lined with hues of red, gold, yellow and orange.
We had some spectacular sunsets
and the creeper on our house was presenting it's own range of russetts.
I walked and rode through a wonderland
and loved every minute of it!

Although it hasn't had the brash vibrancy of the American Fall, it has certainly been a far cry from the wet brown-ness of the Irish Autumn.

Ok Winter, do your worst!

PS I just realised this is my 100th Post!

9 comments:

  1. Lovely photos. Enjoy! It is raining hard here.

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  2. Wow - I've never seen Provence in the autumn! I come every summer as we have a family place down in Hyères but have never seen all the golds and oranges and reds like that. They're beautiful! Thanks for sharing :)

    Best
    Milsters

    (http://www.littlepiecesoflight.com/)

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    1. Thanks Milsters, it was quite short-lived - less than two weeks I'd say - but very pretty

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  3. So pretty! Reminds me of a much prettier version of our fall.

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    1. Gosh I think the Fall is pretty spectacular - I was in New England once just as Fall was starting and I got a hint of what it's like. I'd love to see it in all its glory some day!

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  4. Congratulations on your 100th post! Loved all the pictures and the church and your house and... It's all beautiful.

    We're down to no leaves at all here. It's very bare. Of course, the hurricane helped to denude the trees quickly. I still find the landscape pretty, I just really like all the seasons and the changes they bring.

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  5. Good Morning Martine! Your colors a beautiful! You asked about sunrise and sunset here. In the morning, it rises a little after 6am and sunset with total darkness by 5pm. This morning it is very grey and dark. Our leaves have been totally gone for weeks.

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    1. Goodness, you're up with the lark, aren't you! But you have much more daylight than us here or in Cork.
      Most of the leaves are gone, the poplars after the line "There was every shade of yellow" are completely bare now, but the Cork Oaks will hold onto their leaves for the winter - just like beech trees do

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  6. Thanks for sharing your autumn in Provence! I may never get there, so I love seeing the countryside through your blog, and especially since much of it is from horseback!

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