Our leaves don’t change

Down here in south Florida not much changes in the way of foliage. We don’t see beautiful displays of color as the leaves change each Autumn. Our oak trees -and we do have them!- retain their leaves until they decide to re-leaf in the spring.

It usually occurs in May; within a two week span all the leaves are unceremoniously pushed off by the emerging buds; no signal from nature has prompted a change, they just get the heave ho from their younger siblings.

But still… the leaves themselves don’t erupt in riotous color before their vainglorious fall to the ground. So we have to rely on… you guessed it: avocado trees. Okay, so I’m a little obsessed with the avocado’s extravagant manifestation of color… especially this time of year.

…and then there’s the other side. The side I want to stare at for an hour or two…

This… can divert my attention from almost anything. Laundry, bills, the general election, home theater carpeting and even dreams in which I wind up at Ted Kennedy’s funeral with the girls from Sex and the City.