Yes, it does. Colder than last year for sure. But we do have a way of forgetting how extreme our less pleasant experiences are. Which is, generally, a good thing. Unless you enjoy freezing your skin off. But I digress.
Autumn is, surely, the most beautiful time of year for the eyes. It's hard to take an ordinary photograph. Just walk down the street and look at the trees. The leaves are amazing. Our brains filter out the ugly cars, wheelie-bins and other stuff humans leave on the sidewalks and we just think: "Wow!". It's the task of the photographer to find locations and make images without such distractions. Because once it's on the screen or wall, once we've forgotten about Autumn and all its charm, as the Winter chill sets in, we see those other ordinary things. But again I digress.
Ok, so last weekend I drove one hour North East to the Maroondah Reservoir Park. Such a unique setting. Here they built a huge Reservoir but, instead of closing it off to visitors, made it an attraction planting and maintaining beautiful gardens with Exotic and Native trees. There are forest trails, walks which can be quite steep; but also the must do Rose Staircase to enable visitors to reach the height of the Reservoir wall and explore. Rose gardens are maintained either side of the stairs. At the right time(s) of year it really wouldn't get much better. And it's free to visit and enjoy. On the North West side of the parking area is a substantial picnic area on the level below the Reservoir complete with barbecue facilities. Plenty of grass for kids to play soccer and Cockatoos to hang out. There were plenty of the latter, much to the pleasure of some visitors photographing the birds.
I didn't photograph the birds, play soccer or test the barbecue facilities... this time. I was too busy walking and photographing the remains of Autumn leaves. Probably one or two weeks two late, but better so than never. Here they are. Please comment / like if you can, if you enjoy!
Autumn leaves are everywhere. In the background the Reservoir Wall is visible, holding back up to 22,179 Mega Litres of Water. Now that's water!
Looking down from the top of the wall. In the previous photograph I stood near the top left of this one. Of course you can't see me :-)
While up on the level of the wall the sun fell sweetly on some interesting skinny (maybe dead) trees far away. At the same time it was very cloudy and misty everywhere else.
Some great Architecture even in the functional structures at this Reservoir. Even though we had heaps of rain a couple of days before it's obvious we could use more!
Standing on the huge wall. The view East. Heavy clouds threatening rain. I like this sort of day more than summer sunshine for photography. No editing is needed to make it moody!
Looking down on an old Pump-station surrounded, covered, by leaves. ( who knows ... i'm guessing ).
A view down on the huge wall. Plenty of water below, and an occasional drop from above.
Ascending the Rose Staircase. Unfortunately the rose blossoms are already gone but Autumn colours can be seen. Even by me.
Descending the steps while others ascend. Lovely autumn colours. I hope you enjoyed!
Pathways strewn with the beautiful leaves. Fall Autumn. Till next time.