{"id":4548,"date":"2016-10-31T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T11:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=4548"},"modified":"2016-10-31T11:43:01","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T11:43:01","slug":"the-colours-of-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/the-colours-of-autumn\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colours of Autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed the peak of autumn colour this year in\u00a0the Eastern Townships of Quebec — where colours are as good as (or better than?) any\u00a0place in North America — because of\u00a0some trips that took me away from home. So when a friend sent me a\u00a0photo he took a week or so ago of the hills behind our house, I was delighted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Our

Our house and boathouse on Lake Massawippi are dwarfed by the hills that rise behind.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

What a spectacle it was. Friends who were in the Townships\u00a0say they have never seen colour so vibrant, that lasted for such a long time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My

The same friend took this photo of Lake Massawippi early one morning several weeks ago.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The colour is lasting still. Even though the height of the season is past, marvellous colours are still shouting, ‘hey, look at me.’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"What

What an array of colours! The view looking out over the Big Meadow never fails to excite me.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few days ago, in a brief break from the rain that has been falling (finally!), I took a walk around the garden at Glen Villa. In the Lower Garden, the stephanandra \u00a0(Stephanandra incisa ‘Crispa<\/em>) by the steps to the Lower Garden was a treasure chest\u00a0of gold, its rich colour enhanced by the tones of the stone wall beside it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Golden

Stephanandra makes a dense, mounding ground cover and is very effective at controlling erosion on slopes.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A random branch of spirea caught my eye, particularly since — tucked unexpectedly behind the leaves — a flower or two was blooming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"All

Spirea shouldn’t be blooming at this time of year, at least not in Quebec. But the warm weather we’ve experienced recently is tricking shrubs and flowers into second and third flushes of bloom.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A lonely bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia<\/em>) was blooming as well, but more powerful were the shades of red and green\u00a0in its\u00a0leathery leaves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I

I can overlook the imperfections in the leaves and see only the range of colours. Can you?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

An old hydrangea that has been here for fifty years or so was brilliantly dressed. This shrub is one of my favourites — it reminds me of a similar shrub in our\u00a0garden in Oakville, Ontario where we lived when our children were young.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pink

Pink and creamy white flower heads contrast strongly with orange-toned leaves — \u00a0who but nature would put these colours together, or make them look so compatible?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the bank of the lake, plumes of miscanthus were strikingly white against a dark green\u00a0background. And how to describe\u00a0the colour of the leaves? Orange caramel? Sticky toffee?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Miscanthus

Miscanthus purpurea is not my favourite ornamental grass, but it does make a strong impression\u00a0when it blows in the wind.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Orange and yellow are the dominant colours now, and the prairie dropseed (Sporabolus heterolepis<\/em>\u00a0) at the Aqueduct combines them in a splendid burnt orange that reminds me of John Keats’ poem about autumn.<\/p>\n

The poem opens with familiar words — \u00ab\u00a0Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.\u00a0\u00bb \u00a0The words and the poem as a whole speak more of mood than colour. Which isn’t surprising — mood is what autumn is all about. \u00a0There’s sadness for what is gone and a wistful longing\u00a0for what is to come. But for me the crisp air and blazing colour make\u00a0the longing hopeful. When I see the arching prairie dropseed moving in a breeze, like \u00ab\u00a0hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,\u00a0\u00bb I don’t mind\u00a0that the air is cooler day by day. I feel happy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sporabolus

Sporabolus heterolepis at the Aqueduct makes my heart beat faster.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keats really captured the spirit of\u00a0autumn. His\u00a0lines reverberate and recall seasons past and present, when apples bend the \u00ab\u00a0moss’d cottage-trees\/ And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core…\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Keats

This photo is from 2013. But every year the fruit on these old apple trees is beautiful — and tasty.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today, as a light rain falls, the black trunk and branches of the linden tree at the end of the Big Meadow (aka, the Big Lawn) offer\u00a0a startling contrast to the yellow leaves that linger. \u00a0Despite the rain and winds, despite the sprinkle of snow and the light frost that greeted me a few\u00a0morning’s ago, they are hanging on, ripe to the core.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mellow

Mellow yellow indeed.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is autumn\u00a0like in your part of the world? Does it make you sad or happy? Or both?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I missed the peak of autumn colour this year in\u00a0the Eastern Townships of Quebec — where colours are as good as (or better than?) any\u00a0place in North America — because of\u00a0some trips that took me away from home. So when a friend sent me a\u00a0photo he took a week or so ago of the hills…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,21,346],"tags":[642,186,381,619,349,643,99,47,172,644],"class_list":["post-4548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glen-villa","category-plants","category-quotations","tag-apples","tag-autumn-colour","tag-bergenia","tag-big-meadow","tag-hydrangea","tag-john-keats","tag-linden-tree","tag-lower-garden","tag-ornamental-grasses","tag-stephanandra","category-38","category-21","category-346","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}