I’ll see if I can do a series of these, as the trees colors change.
Usually, the trees would be changing by now but the summer was warm longer than expected.
Tuesday the 16th was First Frost (just in time for me to head to the airport!) usually we don’t get frost until early/mid November.
My parents used to always try to see if we could avoid turning the heat on until after Thanksgiving. Right now it’s about 50F/10C in the house, so I am wandering about wearing my “giant mouse” robe – a huge XXXL plush polartec hooded robe in mouse gray. I don’t think I’ll make it to Thanksgiving.
AFTER THANKSGIVING?! Oh hell no. I had to start using heat three weeks ago. There is only so much that wool socks and sweaters can do. We keep the house around 60 – 65F, don’t see the point in leaving it to go down to 50F! It would take too much energy to get it back up there.
The fall colors are really patchy here, but it does look like you will have quite a display any day now. We don’t get the brilliant reds so much, I hope you are able to catch the colors when they arrive!
Yeah, after Thanksgiving is a little late for me to activate the heat. I have mine set at 62 degrees Fahrenheit (about 16.7 Celsius), and it has already been running regularly for over a week. I also get teased by friends for how low I set my temperature.
We’ve already had a couple of nights go at or below freezing, but here in central Massachusetts that’s not unusual – average time for first frost is mid to late October.
Our foliage is probably close to peak color overall around now.
kestrel@#1:
We don’t get the brilliant reds so much, I hope you are able to catch the colors when they arrive!
There are some maple trees near the post office, that always look like a blaze of flame. Every year I hope I can get a good picture of them but so far I’ve either not had my camera or I’ve been a day too early or too late.
I wonder if the colors of maple leaves would survive in resin.
springa73@#2:
Yeah, after Thanksgiving is a little late for me to activate the heat.
My dad was always coming up with ideas like that, to motivate us to respond to situations around us. During the oil ‘crisis’ in the 70s, fuel oil got ridiculously expensive (and my parents’ house is oil heated) so we became a family of wood-scroungers, log-splitters, and team sawers. I think there was one year we made it to thanksgiving but if it was, it would have been the peak of the oil ‘shortage’.
@Marcus, #3: Pretty sure the color of maple leaves surviving in resin is a great big “nope”. I know a guy who dried flowers in special drying to stuff to get them extra dry and would embed them in resin, or at least he used to… too many people complained about the flowers turning brown. I have seen a few of his pieces from several years ago where the color kinda sorta stayed, but remember these are flowers that are really dry. I think if you dry maple leaves… they turn brown. :-( Always worth a try though. If you could perfect that – !!
So pretty! I want to wander that forrest.
No, these colours are not very light-stable, they usually fade pretty fast, even if the resin blocks UV light. But try anyway, maybe it works!
Related Funfact 1: there is a kind of solar cells (“dye sensitized solar cells”) that even work if you soak the framework in blended leave juice. The chlorophyl is the electronsource, but in such a way the cells work only for a few hours. Then the chlorophyl has decayed. Funfac 2: most plant colours in leaves (reds, greens) have halflives in the organism of a few days, the plants have to synthesize them constantly.
Ouch! I keep the temperature in my home at 17°C. I think that 10°C sounds pretty awful. By the way, I still haven’t turned on the heating. Even though outside it’s already very cold, my apartment is still at 19°C, because the last few days were sunny and I have south facing windows.
I so get this. I have a natural gas central heating boiler in my kitchen. Having one sure is convenient (no need to carry around firewood), but gas bills do get expensive.
In Soviet Union having central heating in your apartment was perceived as a status symbol. Masonry heaters were perceived as outdated and lacking any prestige. Thus during the Soviet period many gorgeously beautiful antique ceramic masonry heaters got demolished and replaced with gas burning central heating systems. Everybody who was rich wanted central heating, thus only poorer people kept their wood furnaces. And now it has finally come to the point where this is changing. Due to natural gas having become expensive, I have set my thermostat lower than I’d like to. And by now I actually envy my friends who have wood burning furnaces, because they can actually afford to keep their homes warm. Sure, it requires some manual labor, but at least wood is cheap (especially if you are willing to do some log splitting on your own).
@ 7 Ieva Skrebele
18 C here.
10 C sounds mad (Hi Marcus)
And since Thanksgiving was two weeks ago I made it,! Not that I or my family ever paid any attention to such ideas.