Fallout

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Usually at this time of year the brilliant red and orange maple leaves are scrambling over each other to climb onto the scanner glass for a chance to be captured like in Fall Leaf Collage II or Seasonings.  OK, maybe I help them a little bit.  This year hasn’t been the case.  Walking through our front lawn this morning I couldn’t find a single leaf that wasn’t at least partially shredded — not by wind or a long summer’s wear and tear but from this year’s gypsy moth and winter moth infestations.  Most of the leaves had at least a third that had been munched away, a result of this double-pronged attack.  Our neighborhood was hit less than many, but still plenty of fallout.

The prolonged drought this year also may have been a factor.  The peppered oblong leaves in Seasonings (spirea?) were disappointing this year, still with their spots but with nowhere near the color.  I can’t say for sure the dry spell is the cause but whatever the reason they didn’t have the glimmer of past years.

The oncoming winter gives an opportunity for plants to regroup and sprout forth anew in the spring, and hopefully a wetter spring will attenuate the recent growth in the gypsy moth population next year, giving the fungus that attacks them a better chance at control.

Until then, I’ll have to stick with the flower captures I made this year and perhaps rely on some store-bought posies once in a while.

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