ginko leaves

we have three magnificent ginko trees at the street edge of our front yard.

every autumn they drop all their leaves in the matter of a few hours, it's like a switch goes off in their ancient tree brain that says drop your leaves - now.

ginko leaves - oil on canvas - 36" x 45"

yesterday we had our first hard frost and as the sun came up the leaves started to fall, by lunchtime all the leaves from all three trees were on the ground.

(source photograph for the painting above)

having the leaves drop yesterday was a terrible shame because the trees had not turned yellow yet, they were still bright green. very unusual. i look forward to their yellow splendor all year...

here are some snapshots from last autumn when they were incredible

all honey and sunlight.

ginko trees have a beautiful architecture.

all three of our trees are females - which means they each drop thousands of karo syrup sticky pinky orange berries with nuts/pits in the center. they smell noxious as they rot, the squirrels won't eat them and they stick to the rake. but oh, those beautiful leaves.