leaves

D.C. sucked me in when I first arrived back in April by greeting my stay with two months of wonderful spring conditions, including warm air, low humidity and colorful plants everywhere.

A few miserable months of summer gave me insight into why the District has a reputation for miserable weather. I hoped fall would provide another lengthy buffer zone before what I'm assured is going to be horrible wet and cold-but-rarely-freezing winter conditions. (I would far rather deal with 20 degrees and snow than 33 degrees and rain).

A few weeks have given me the fall I was looking for, but it certainly hasn't been consistent as spring. A week of hot and humid, followed by a week of nice crisp weather, followed by wet rain, back to hot, repeat. It didn't help when Daylight Savings went away, and the sun is now leaving the party in the early afternoon.

Yesterday I was out walking at about 1 p.m. and thought to myself how it was a perfect day - jacket weather with some crispness to the air, but calm and sunny. Then two hours later I was walking home in a heavy rain, and before I went to bed I looked outside to see a 30-mile-an-hour wind blowing trash up my street.

I have a feeling the nice days are going to get rarer from here on out. But we still have the lingering effect of one of the nicer aspects of the past few weeks - the trees turning.

Washington and its surroundings actually host a large number of deciduous trees, all of which have been showing off their color-changing abilities. It impressed a recent visitor from Ireland (not so many trees left on the island) and has made a few long, slow drives around the city a bit more bearable. Of course, the leaves are starting to disappear, making the journey to the ground and gutter in preparation for the miserable months ahead.