Autumn Colors

This weekend I went for a walk around my local park to see the fall foliage before all the leaves came fluttering down. Peak color for my region is in early November, but due to some recent stormy weather some of the trees were already half bare. Luckily there were still plenty of trees in full blaze, though, so I managed to capture the last of autumn's scarlets, oranges, and golds before winter's palette of greys sets in.

It was windy and misty when I set out, and many of the fallen leaves were caught in the fence bordering the park. They must have fallen fairly recently, since they were still so bright:

Even through the mist, the red leaves of the trees lining the park's main path were visible across the local baseball field. The red dots in the shrubs look like berries, but they're actually Christmas lights--the park was already being fitted for the annual holiday light display that is illuminated from Thanksgiving night through the first week of the new year:

The red leaves looked extra-bright against the dense grey mist, and you can just make out the wires of Christmas lights through the leaves in these pictures:

In the changeable way of autumn, it actually turned bright and sunny towards the end of my walk. It was nice to see the blue skies and the golden afternoon sunlight with the fall colors as well:

I'll be sad when the fall colors fade away, but at least I'll have the colors and brightness of the Christmas lights to look forward to!