Autumn again

Our street is, like most of the suburb, lined with deciduous trees which are a riot of green all through spring and summer. About this time last year I remember being struck by the sudden change the trees go through - I moved to the UK in July so I turned up just in time to see all the greenery before autumn turned everything into something out of a Rob Reiner movie. Well, that's what it seemed like. As I would have said at the time, they have real seasons here! What I'm trying to say is that this is exciting for me, because autumn in Brisbane looks pretty much the same as all the other seasons.

This was our street one morning a few weeks ago.

I also saw another bit of picturesque continuity - this house a few lots down with a carpet of leaves adorning its path.
I photographed this same house and path sometime in April when it had a different seasonal carpet:

The street looks quite different again now. The trees are bare, and the only thing lining the streets are a few rotting remnants of the autumn leaves, and people's recycling spilling out of their front yards while it waits to be collected. Most of the houses seem to have to leave their rubbish and recycling out on the footpath and because most of it is in bags or open topped containers, the squirrels have an excellent time sorting through it all and then leaving all manner of disgusting things strewn all over the footpath. It's been cold and drizzly all week so this makes the street look particularly unpleasant. I'm sad we'll be leaving before things turn around in spring, but then again, the end of February seems to be London's least inviting time of year so perhaps it's the perfect time to go after all.