This morning I noticed suddenly the leaves were orange. The crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), which is gently pushing over the paling boundary fence, has embraced the coming autumn. It was only yesterday, or perhaps the day before, I’d looked up and noted the leaves were still (mainly) green and, swinging the blower left and right, not many had fallen, yet.
And yet the change had not been sudden but minutely gradual— the plant’s movement perceptibly imperceptible and imperceptibly perceptible. The human’s (my) inability to pay attention on this level gave the impression of suddenness not a plant’s (impossible) rushed action.
