Among all the other effects of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere this month via smoke is the fact that we didn't quite have our usual Autumn. Santa Rosa is full of beautiful trees which spectacularly change color, but this year it stayed warm longer which delayed a lot of trees and the smoke dulled the effect of the ones that did change. Now that it has rained, the air has been washed clean and so have the leaves that still cling to the trees. The ground is coated with a beautiful carpet which will soon be swept or blown away...by the likes of our OCD neighbor with a horror of leaves, or OilMan who picks them out of the rosemary hedge by hand or by Mother Nature Herself.

Autumn trees and vineyards and beautiful sunsets are ephemeral, but today, on the last day of November before we swing into Christmas tree mode, I thought I should keep my eye open for whatever fall color remains.

The two trees in today's picture are in my neighbor's front garden. I liked the contrast in color and texture between the blushing Japanese maple and the mossy oak. They live just across the road from us but because they live right on the creek*, they live in a whole different ecosystem. We have the same kind of oak trees but instead of luxuriant green moss our trees sport grayish lichens of several varieties.

The biggest oak tree on our property has a crack right through its heart. When the tree trimmer was here he cut off several branches on the downhill side and third a rope between the upper branches to take pressure off the split, but I fear it is growing both longer and wider, so I think a call to an arborist is in order to see if there is anything we can do for it. The double whammy of a season's worth of pollutants being released by fire into the atmosphere in a week and the loss of many trees, which ordinarily help capture CO2, to the same flames, makes me doubly concerned about saving as many trees as we can.

Coming from a tiny garden in Berkeley with but one apple tree which we planted on Tim's first birthday, we don't know much about tree care, so the world of tree trimmers and arborists is a new one to us. All I know is that arborists are quite pricey and the only thing they give away is advice....

I know it's a huge stretch, but I'm tagging this for Flower Friday. I understand perfectly, Biker Bear if you disqualify it, but it it really does look to me like a giant bouquet....

*The creek must have been really low before it rained because it still isn't exactly in spate....