Summer leaf drop

I took my walk this evening through a wooded area. It had been a windy day (a blessing in the summer!) and we had a strong storm on Wednesday. Normally in the middle of summer I'd expect to see some branches on the ground along with a few bunches of green leaves torn off. Instead, the broad path looked like a postcard of a forest road in high autumn: strewn with brown leaves, the ground only visible in a narrow band where other walkers had been. Crunch, crunch, a wonderful sound if it were appropriate for the season.

They were mostly red oak leaves in that area, but it's not just oaks; the birch and cottonwoods are shedding leaves that aren't even brown, they're a crisp-dry gray green, as if they were cooked alive and then fell.

This reminded me that when I was hiking at the beginning of July, I saw a very dramatic leaf drop. I was walking along and suddenly noticed that I was past ankle-deep in oak leaves. They were all in one area and clearly all from the same tree. I looked up and found the source: a gnarled, denuded oak. I could see the blue sky so clearly between the bare black branches. It looked like all the leaves had dropped almost simultaneously, like in a cartoon. They hadn't had time to even be blown around by the wind.