Starting to be Autumn 09-06-08

Up in the hills above San Juan Bautista it is beginning to look like Autumn.

The first trees to lose their leaves are the Buckeyes. The fruit stays on the bare branches, elongating and slowly turning tan so they look like small pears. These are California Buckeyes - more info at: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=188

The fruit is toxic, except to squirrels who eat it when there is nothing else.

These red leaves are lovely, but don't get too close - it is Poison Oak, the variety that grows on the US Pacific Coast. Very poisonous.

It is quite easy to identify when the shiny lobed leaves turn red/orange/yellow/gold, but the rest of the year the three leaves grouped together is a common identifier. There are other varieties of the plant in other parts of the country.

I don't know what this vine is, but it makes a nice pattern with the dried sepals.

Here is the Lombardy poplar which grows across the road from the gate to the houses up the hill. In a few more weeks it will be a pillar of bright yellow.

The road down the mountain curves and goes up and down with trees all along the way. There are a number of houses and livestock, mostly horses, but a few cows, buffalo, sheep and goats. There was a time fifty+ years ago that I lived on the outskirts of town in Oregon and these sights were familiar. It is like a trip back in time whenever I drive this road.

In the woods and in the fields and the stream beds and ... well, anywhere it hasn't been cleared out, is the poison oak.