The Extravagant Colours of the Canadian Autumn -- 2

The following autumn colours were visible in the Rouge Park, Toronto:

Photos (Toronto: October 11, 2010) © Jerome D'Costa

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[To go to the beginning of this photo essay, please click here]

The Extravagant Colours of the Canadian Autumn -- 1

Canada, at present, is in the midst of the autumn season. The Nature is in flame here. Gorgeous autumn colours (yellow, orange, brown, bronze, red and purple) in leaves are aspread from the east coast to the west coast, from the north to the south.

With the passing of the summer, the autumn comes with shorter and colder days which make trees know that they have to get ready for the coming winter. Since there wouldn't be enough sunlight and water during the winter, the trees know that they wouldn't be able to use the photosynthesis process (turning water and carbon dioxide into glucose or sugar) for producing food. So, to survive the winter, tree roots, trunks, branches and twigs begin to preserve glucose within themselves and at the same time stop supplying food to their leaves. This gradual stoppage of food makes leaves change colour and fall off to the ground.

Deciduous trees are the ones that shed off their leaves in the autumn. These trees are oaks, hickories, maples, birches, beeches, chestnuts, cottonwoods, dogwoods, cherries, and some others.

Now let's enjoy the autumn colours in and around Toronto.

All photos (Toronto: September-October, 2010) © Jerome D'Costa

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The Poem of the Month (September, 2009): AUTUMN

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The Autumn

By Jerome D'Costa

The Autumn is in,
Summer is out.
Flowers that bedecked
The gardens and lawns,
Are either wilted or about to fall,
Making the plants almost bare or dead.

Fruits, melons, pumpkins and the like
Are in the markets and shelves,
Attracting customers in droves
Who will relish the Nature's bounty?

Frequent blasts of wind,
Beating the leaves -- many of them
Yellow, orange, reddish or brown,
About to drop to the ground en masse,
Giving the appropriate name "the Fall"
To the season of Autumn.

The Spring is in the Air

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After the bitter winter, the Spring comes with a vengeance.
Flower bulbs are pushing their way through the recently
thawed ground announcing the good news of the Spring.

Photos (Toronto: March 18, 2009) © Jerome D'Costa

Officially today is the first day of the Spring season in Canada. After months of snow, sleet and sub-zero temperature, the Spring comes with the good news, new life, and renewed love. This season will last for the next three months.

In Winter, most of the trees and plants, by shedding their leaves, had gone nude. In Spring, they put on a new set of clothes and envelope their surroundings with the greens. Animals wake up from their wintry slumber, birds return from their sunny and warmer vacation. Flowers bloom and bees line up for gathering nectar. The fauna, due to their biological urge, take part in the creation of new life.

For the Christians, the Easter comes in the Spring ushering in the "resurrection" or new life. This type of life is the one Jesus Christ came to offer to this world.

Happy Spring to you all!