Lonely leaf

You may have noticed a recurring leafy theme of late. I'm fascinated by the contrasting color all around me. 

Landscapers consider the persimmon a scrub tree. It's a throwaway tree in most landscaped yards. Mother Nature landscaped our yard and the persimmon is welcome. Even though the tree is spindly with splotchy leaves in autumn, I think it's a beautiful tree. It's also one of the best predictors of spring. Some trees  in early March, get in a hurry to get at the sun. They leaf out before it's wise and late frosts makes them pay. In the fall when the persimmons ripen, they fall to the ground and look like tiny smushy (is that a word) pumpkins. 

If someone (Jordan) walks into our yard and steps on a persimmon, we can hear him howl "YUCK" from the front yard. He sits on the front steps and digs icky stuff from between his toes with his fingers.

Then later when cold weather creeps in, that first frost is a harbinger that winter is just around the corner. The leaves of the persimmon turn a beautiful color that's hard to put a label on. It's a cross between amber and sunset red.

This morning as Jilda and I walked, the last leg of our path which takes us up the narrow asphalt road that runs in front of our house, I found my photo of the day. Midway up the hill, I noticed the leaf on the road blown there by the wind.

It looked lonely.  I knew that the truck I heard off in the distance was the farmer down the road taking hay to his cattle down in the river bottoms. The wind that chases trucks down the road would take the leaf away, so I snapped a quick picture.