I love Ginkgo trees. Today I walked up to the front yard of Asbury Seminary to take a few pictures of the Ginkgo. I love the flaming leaves not so much for their amazing color, but for the leaves themselves.

Ginkgo leaves are not like other leaves. They are fan shaped and sort of spongy, almost like they are filled with a bit of wool or cotton batting. They do not deteriorate like regular leaves, but keep their distinctive shape. Here is one that fell on a bush.

Now, the miracle of Ginkgo leaves is that when they fall, they mostly all fall in the very same day. Then the leaves pile up in inviting piles, luring kids and adults to jump in the spongy leaves.



The trees are huge and because they grow so slow these trees must be very old. Every year Wilmorans [this is what I lovingly call folks who live in Wilmore] wait for the trees to turn gold and for the leaves to fall.

Years ago we would take the kids up to play in the leaves and Kari still talks about how fun that was. The problem is, the seminary is very quick to rake the leaves so it is always a challenge to find the one or two days after the leaves fall and before they rake them up.


There are two trees on the lawn and one had already dropped its leaves but this one will probably be de-nuded in a matter of hours or possibly tomorrow.




Today, there was a mom with her children, taking advantage of this wonderful, free photo opportunity. I love this picture. Just before I shot this photo the kids were rolling and jumping in the leaves.

I laid right on my back to take the shot at the top of my blog. Falling leaves-makes kids of us all.

Take care,
Jill