Deadly Yellow and Red Essay

In Europe, it's and isn't winter now.

It seems like nonsense or a mistake, but it is and isn't must be antagonistic, I think. They can't exist together and at the same time, and yet...

This paradox, I guess it can be called that, is true.

Calendaristically and meteorologically, it is winter from December 1, but astronomically winter begins on December 21, when it is the winter solstice.

What did I mean by this introduction? I apologize for asking myself, but I know that otherwise, nobody would ask me... I meant that if meteorology and astronomy can't tell when winter starts, then how would poor plants know?

I'm thinking of the plants and trees in my backyard that are always surprised and unprepared for the arrival of winter!

A few days ago it snowed for the first time in Bucharest, the city in Romania where I live. While the other trees have given up their leaves and resigned themselves that winter is near, my birches are stubborn and don't want to part with their leaves. It's the yellow period of their leaves...

Before this snowfall this is what their leaves looked like.

The birch is a wonderful tree!

Small, many leaves go through several colors, from the raw green of spring to the intense green of summer and the yellow of autumn, to be orange to brown before death.

Then the thin, elastic, and long branches form a kind of curtain. I can't get tired of looking at them!

But it's not only birch that is beautifully colored in late autumn, towards winter. There's also the little Japanese maple!

Another wonder of nature... Its leaves are a strange spring color, a kind of green mixed with red, then they turn a greyish green and, like birch, become splendid before they die at the beginning of winter.

Like the birch, the maple didn't think winter would come so soon, even before the astronomically designated start. A fatal mistake for the delicately red leaves...

This early winter didn't last long. Two days (and nights)! The weather turned into a kind of angry, wet, and cold autumn again. Unfortunately, it was enough for the maple to lose its leaves. Even though the birch held on and after the snow melted it looked the same as before the snow, the maple put on the clothes of winter and hibernation. A hibernation in which to dream of spring.

Just as I'm already dreaming of the spring necessary to get to summer and... the sea!

The inspiration for this post comes from @mipiano and her blog today, which you can read here. This reminded me of this little community, where I posted in the past but then forgot about it, Photo-essay.

Also from a post by @mipiano, I learned about another community, Throwback Thursday, where our memories are expected.

I don't like crowds. Instead, I like photography and the opportunity to tell a story by looking at a photo. I like remembering old memories. Because it's not crowded in these communities and because I can do what I like, I'm very happy to be a member, and thank my friend @mipiano for helping me discover them!