Late color, PNP

Today was public walk day at the Preston Nature Preserve, but, with the rain pelting down all morning—not that I'm complaining about desperately needed precipitation—the sun coming out around noon, then the clouds and cold showers returning, I had scant hope that I'd have any "public" wanting to accompany me. Had it been possible to cancel, I would have opted for prudence, but it wasn't, so I felt duty-bound to show up, and, no real surprise, I had a trio of fellow lunatics bearing rain ponchos and umbrellas and wanting to explore. I put on my hat, grabbed my waterproof Fuji—still functioning after all these storms—and slogged out on the wet trails. A Sharp-shinned Hawk flew off a Mulberry tree in front of us, and I was sorry I hadn't been able to pack the Sigma super-telephoto, but at least I have the raptor's flight fixed in memory... well, for the time being. I did better, photographic image-wise, with this trio of leaves caught in the process of shutting down the chlorophyll factories. There's still green between the leaf veins, but it's riding an ebb tide and being slowly and steadily exported back into storage to wait for the return of the growing season.