
Usually when I despatch a scarf into the postal system, last week it was Musselburgh, I go to my nearest Post Office, but as we are in the middle of autumn, I thought I’d walk a bit further along a more scenic route. I chose the Post Office the other side of the Old Cemetery taking my camera with me to capture some autumnal colours as I strolled through.

I have to admit I was disappointed and a little surprised. There have been plenty of trees dropping their leaves around Ipswich, but a panorama of blazing colour in the Old Cemetery it was not.

Some of the trees were turning, but there were many more still pretty green as you can see from my photographs.

I expect all the recent rain and the lack of any overnight frost has delayed the colour changes.

One or two of the large horse chestnuts and the odd plane tree were at the light golden stage. I had expected the Pride of India/Golden Rain (Koelreuteria paniculata) trees to have been transformed into fiery oranges, but they were still entirely green.

Back in September when I walked through the Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) was at its full orange-tipped yellow stage, but that moment has gone and it now stands in its dormant winter nakedness.

Perhaps this autumn will be one of those years where the leaves change colour almost at the point of dropping, and we will blink and miss it.
