Changes

People, plants, animals, weather and everything changes in a way. This week I realized that things can change in just seconds. One day it can be "this" and the next day it can be totally different and be "that." Sometimes I don't quite understand why things change but they do and either like it or not I try to see the good and appreciate the beauty of those changes. Just a couple weeks ago my apple tree was filled with red apples and the leaves were a beautiful darkish green. The days that I have been going to do my observations I thought that this wouldn't change any time soon since my tree has been the same for a while but I was completely wrong. In about a week my apple tree had only a couple of apples. The rest are on the ground all dried up and they are getting eaten. I noticed that birds eat my apples because one day that I was out observing there was a bird eating them. I wanted to take a picture but when I took out my phone the bird flew away. My apple tree has now begun to change little by little. I'm excited too see how my tree is going to continue to change. My prediction is that it will lose all it's leaves. But I will continue to observe to find out. Below Is a picture of how the apples are becoming to look.

(Taken By Allison) 10/19/14


 But my apple tree isn't the only tree that is changing. Very close to my apple tree is my pear tree. This is a weird tree because every year it grows leaves but it never grows pears. I wonder why this happens. Well the pear tree was full of beautiful green leaves just like my apple tree. But little by little, as the days pass by the leaves became to fall and some way they disappear. The tree is now almost completely out of leaves. There are still some leaves that continue to hang on but there isn't very many. I think it's beautiful how this happens. This process reminds me of a snake. A snake's skin falls completely off and then it grows a new one. The tree is pretty similar because the tree grows leaves, loses the leaves and grows them again. Down below is a picture of how my pear tree looks now.

(Taken by Allison) 10/19/14

 

I also noticed a small tree that grows tiny purplish, bluish berries changing. The color of the leaves are changing. Before all the leaves were green and now they are red, orange, yellow and some leaves still remain green. Down below is a picture of the berry tree.

(Taken by Allison) 10/19/14

After seeing all these leaves changing I asked myself "Why do leaves change color?" Well I did some research and I discovered that the reason why that the color of leaves change is because of a mixture of red, purple, orange, and yellow result from chemical processes that take place in the tree as the seasons change from summer to winter. There are four leaf pigments that are responsible for leaf color and it's changes in autumn which are chlorophylls, carotenoids, tannins, and anthocyanins. To learn more about this visit the website of  http://www.butler.edu/herbarium/fallcolor/leaveschange.htm Changes can be very beautiful. Nature is full of surprises and we just need to appreciate the changes.