What a difference three weeks and two big storms make!

Remember the glorious burning bush on the outskirts of my neighbors’ lawn? On October 21, it looked like this:

The leaves have since given way to small red-orange berries. The color burns more brightly now that most of the green is gone.

Trail of brown leaves with fuzzy butt

“All the leaves are brown / and the sky is gray . . .” Well, not quite all the leaves. Yellow glows in the November woods. I’m not “California Dreamin'” either. I like it right where I am.

Remember the winged sumac, October’s deep magenta-red? The huge stand of it across Old County Road from Pine Hill (left) has gone incognito. Sorry, no photos of it at its peak — but it really was this red:

Gray and white and red all over, Oct. 21

Here’s what the roadside edge of the Nat’s Farm field looked like in late October:

This morning it was more subdued:

Trav and I got caught in two downpours on our walk this morning. The first was brief, the second not so. Was I wearing raingear? I was not. We took shelter in the little entryway of an unoccupied summer house, with this holly bush for company. That’s not tinsel on the left, by the way. It’s rain sluicing off the roof.

We were both pretty wet when we got home. Trav shook most of the water off. I hung my clothes up to dry.