Leaf Peak in Roosevelt Park

Click the picture for a beautiful slide show! My shoot that was scheduled for Saturday was postponed because of the rain.

So I ended up wandering around Roosevelt Park in Edison during peak leaf season, a rare opportunity these days for me to soak up the beauty of the landscape. The two pictures above are the top side and under side of a red maple leaf.

This bank of trees hasn’t reached full peak yet, but most of Roosevelt Park has.

Or, it’s also possible that those trees above are made up of trees like this one that is both fully green and fully yellow at the same time. Cool!

It was a very strange day — raining on and off all day, and when it did rain, it often rained really hard.

I love this picture.

The reddish tree, a pin oak, is known in my family as “the picnic tree.”

I love fall. Driving, walking, biking, running, rain, sun, snow, it doesn’t matter. I just love to be outside in fall.

This was a random Japanese red maple in the woods of the park.

Beauty no matter which way you go.

One of the reasons I love fall, besides the obvious firestorm of color, is the new appreciation I get for nature’s layers.

Beech nut.

Rain.

The G-rex made an umbrella with a poplar leaf.

Mike was studying stuff on the ground.

Such as this acorn, which Mike said was cool because it still had its hat.

Even G-rex knows acorns come from oak trees.

Another example of layers.

This one was G-rex’s favorite.

Red maple.

It is my goal this week to determine what kind of tree this is. Note: bark is like an elephant trunk, gray and ridged, knotty and wide.

Leaves are orange on the outside, yellow on the inside, smooth, oval, alternate.

It might be a crabapple of some kind, but I’m not sure.

It’s near the playground, and near this burning bush. Kids are always playing on the knotty tree, climbing it and seeking shade under it’s canopy.

Oh wow, forget that tree — the burning bushes are amazing today.

Amazing.

Sugar maple, near the basketball courts.

Nobody’s playing basketball today, so the geese were taking advantage of the quiet lawn.

Sugar maple leaves are beautiful in fall, probably one of the best trees for fall color.

Hello goose.

Soap box time. This newly planted tree is a pear. There are so many better selections of trees to plant.

Sweet gum leaf, another one of the best fall trees!

Dare I say it? Ok, I can’t resist. Mike is so poplar

In case you’re wondering why I didn’t post captions for any of the sunny day pictures from my fall leaf slide show, those are coming tomorrow. Enjoy!