Well Autumn is well and truly settling in. It's a lovely time to visit the Hill at the moment, with colours slowly changing and views across the city and firth beginning to reveal themselves as leaves fall.
Love the colours but unsure what causes this stunning seasonal change?
The bright rich greens of summer are caused by the leaves main function of making food for the trees. They do this by producing sugar from carbon dioxide and water, using chlorophyll (which creates the green colour) and light. When the light reduces and the temperature begins to drop with the changing season, the trees begin to stop their chlorophyll production and get ready for the sun and food deprived days of winter. This reduces the green colour and instead, other hidden pigments are revealed: carotene makes leaves turn yellow, while anthocyanins (which you can really see in maples for example) make the leaves go red.
If you are going to go 'leaf peeping' (yes, it's a thing!), keep an eye out for the horse chestnuts and beech trees, which generally lead the way, followed by silver birch, and then ash and oak. All of which are in plentiful supply on our lovely Hill.