Autumn foliage at Nara Park

Autumn foliage viewing season has come to Nara Park!

The roof of Todai-ji Main Hall, the largest wooden structure in the world

In early November, Ginkgo leaves burst gold in the light.

A waka poet Akiko Yosano saw small golden birds 
when ginkgo leaves falling at a hillside aglow with the setting sun.

A flock of tiny golden birds perching on the twigs

Walking through autumn foliage always inspires me to lyricism.
How leaves are beautiful in colors with light at their last days of life!

Chinese Tallow Trees

These Chinese Tallow trees are still on the verge of turning red.

What I like most about Chinese Tallows are the various juicy, delicious colors
in the process to their full maturity.

I imagine the leaves would paint the wind while floating, whirling, and dancing
to fall to the ground.

In between the leaf watching, I enjoyed Okonomiyaki, assorted sweets, 
and some Italian dishes with Y and her sister F
at the art exhibition of Y's kindergarten.

There is always coming and going.
Sakura leaves are almost gone, while the fiery red of Japanese Maples are coming soon.

They will play the grand finale of the autumn.

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Indian Summer October

October has been sunny and warm different from the gloomy 

or series of disastrous weather of September.

Peaceful days have passed with the unseasonably warm daytime
hovering around 25 degrees C .

After the misty rain, pearls of morning dew was glinting serene and blissful.

A butterfly in the cosmos field.

Chrysanthemums, one of autumn’s beauties.

Autumn roses flower into maturity till the chill of the north wind.

Y likes to help around garden as he likes mud, dirt, insects, and water.

At the green shop, he chose Amethyst sage, of Salvia leucantha, without hesitating. 
Purple is one of his favorite colors.

In the mountain, hearts, which look losing their freshness,
 were hanging in there on vine strings.

In the northern part of Japan and on the higher elevation,
autumn leaves have already passed their peak like Liriodendron tulipifera in the photo below.

But here in Nara, the best time will come in a month.
Chinese Tallow trees are changing colors.

"sudachi" is a seasonal sour citrus used as food flavoring.

It contains more Vitamin C than “yuzu” and lemon.

Autumn is for eating as well as for art and sports.

There is an adage “shokuyoku no aki” meaning “autumn is the season for eating”.

Kebab & Curry set

With November just around the corner, weather has started turning  to the chill at last.
As temperatures drop, autumn color changes.
The next post will be about the landscape with autumn tint.

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Blue skies have appeared

At last it’s going to clear up for the week steadily.

On my way back to Nara City.
I visited three Athletic Meetings of my grandchildren one after another in a week.

I like autumn rain which falls gently or sometimes more like drizzle. 

 Early September, it was a welcome relief.

With each rain, it got cooler.

Soon I realized that the extreme weather had been still continuing in a different way.

The persistent autumn rain and three super typhoons (# 22, 24, and 25) 

which came every holiday weekends caused few sunny days.

Lycoris radiata

The maintenance and repairs of my home has been disrupted by the weather.

When I was indoors, the rare blue skies were looked up through the mesh sheets 

attached to the temporary scaffolding. 

Under the dismal sky, the scaffolding set fire on Y’s curious and adventuresome spirit. 

Before each typhoon, the top sheets were taken off

not to be flapped in the storm wind.

In the silence before the typhoon

I was scared by the ferocious howling of the wind during the duration of the passing typhoon.

The young berries of Callicarpa japonica survived.

The colors will deepen soon.

I found some colored leaves of a flowering dogwood.

Flowering doogwood leaves are the first to change colors.

Having a sense of autumn, I have the craving for “Kuri”, or chestnut.
It is an autumn delicacy.

Now that the full exterior painting and roof repairs are mostly completed.

the temporary scaffolding will be taken away in this week. 

I'm ready for exploring into autumn.

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