Fall's Palette a la Central Texas

We left La Grange, TX, and headed west on I-10. After a few miles, we noticed a change in the scenery. We kept commenting on the beauty of the area as we drove toward the Hill Country of Central Texas.

We had missed the brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges of Fall in Pennsylvania. We thought of these colors as coming from a "summer-fall" palette. The Fall that we knew was a loud farewell to warm weather. A final outburst before heading into a black-and-while world of winter.

The farther we traveled, the more fascinated we became with the landscape's appearance. Whether because it was so different from what we were used to or because the colors were more subdued, we thought the terrain was beautiful. In contrast to our experience with the summer-fall palette, we described this scene as being painted with colors from a "winter-fall" palette. The muted yellow, burgundy, and rust colors could almost get lost in the grays of the trees.

Traveling along an interstate highway, pulling an RV, made it difficult to stop and study the subtle blending of the colors. So, I photographed these scenes as we rolled along--under the speed limit.

I would like to tell you the complicated calculations I made as we approached this group of trees and the home (below)--estimating the truck speed, the time it would take to press the button, and the shutter speed. I would like to, but simply put, sometimes I get lucky--real lucky.

From a distance, the gray of the trees appeared to provide a solid background for the soft colors. Up close, some of the trees looked like this one.

Other trees had a moss-like growth around the branches. The strands of this substance were thicker and less pliable than the Spanish moss we found on the Live Oak trees near the rivers and swamps in Louisiana.

We asked one of the people at the Kerville-Schreiner Park what this moss-like substance was, but she didn't know.

So, we now have a question in search of an answer.