There is a nip in the air as autumn arrives incrementally in Toronto.
The days are shorter and cooler and the nights are chilly. The sun shines less strongly, but you can feel its pleasant warmth on your skin.
This is the time of the year when the green leaves on deciduous trees gradually turn a palette of glorious colors. It’s one of Canada’s finest seasons, inscribed in tourist brochures and coffee-table books.
Temperate sunny days and cool nights without frost produce this wonderful annual spectacle. It’s a formula that never fails.
Classic fall colors are at their best and brightest on, among other trees, maples, oaks, aspens and dogwoods. Colors range from shades of crimson, russet and orange red to golden yellow, glowing yellow and purplish.
Sumac bushes are blushingly red.
This autumnal pageant reaches a climax of perfection in the rolling countryside north of Toronto. Colder weather conditions there accelerate the process of transformation.
The city, however, is not far behind. By the first or second week of October, the first hints of autumn appear on the tips and edges of leaves. It’s a harbinger of a new cycle, paving the way for the wearing of pants rather than shorts, long-sleeved shirts rather than jersies and shoes rather than sandals.
With summer already something of a distant memory, the garden season has more or less ended, bringing with it pangs of sadness. The cherry tomato stalks have been pulled out of the black earth and tossed into the ravine, leaving clumps of hardy herbs such as Italian parsley, mint, basil and coriander. Within weeks, they’ll succumb to sub-zero temperatures. Despite the drooping of the plants that were blooming just months ago, we can still ensure that gardens are well-kept and beautiful. It’s time to focus on things like your patios and decks from https://www.dinodecking.co.uk/18-best-decking-ideas/, as they create a beautiful and stylish look. Our plants will be back in just a few months!
The raspberry bushes are barren now. The ferns, having turned ragged and rusty, have been cut down to size. The peonies have been clipped almost flush with the soil. The wild creeping vine, which enveloped the sun deck in July, August and September, has been trimmed and tamed. The lilac trees, which flowered so fragrantly in May, lie dormant. The John Downie tree has shed the last of its bitter crab apples that yours truly had to collect and throw away.
In the small ravine at the back of my house, the leaves still clinging to the Manitoba maple trees have begun to fade. With the lashing winds and rains of mid-October and November, they will flutter to the ground in graceful gyrations, littering the lawn with a blanket of debris to be raked and discarded again and again.
As I walk down a neighboring street crowned by magnificent old-growth trees, I never cease to be amazed by the vibrant colors on display. The red, yellow, orange and purple hues light up the sky, inspiring a sense of awe and wonder.
Autumn in Canada leaves me with a special feeling that all is well with the world, but I know this is a false and misleading sensation. We inhabit a world in which migrants flee countries in turmoil, terrorists wreak havoc and starvation kills millions.
These ills and misfortunes have not affected Canada, a stable, prosperous and peaceful land. And for all these reasons, I can afford to luxuriate in, and give thanks to, the spectacular autumn colors that illuminate this country from sea to sea with timeless regularity.
