I thought I saw a golden tree. Tell me, please, do you agree?

That's Madison Street, with the vehicles. When I drove through the park Sunday night, going right to left, the street lights illuminated the leaves. I could not believe what I saw--the gingkos had started to change from green to gold. I'm extremely enthusiastic about these trees, so I warn you up front--I have gone overboard posting photos today because I wish for you to feel how I felt, in perfect awe of nature's beauteous changes.



Remember the tree from Monday's post, the one with the huge burl? I took this photo standing to the east of where I stood to take the other one. Are you as shocked as I am to see that it resembles a tuning fork from this angle? That small pile of leaves makes it look like someone raked a while, got tired, and walked away.



Now you can see the Thompson Elk Fountain from a different direction. Notice the traffic? I took these photos between 5:15-5:30 p.m. There's always loads and loads of traffic which is a great big reason why I ride the bus and/or walk. In fact, I rode a Number 4 across the Willamette, over the Hawthorne Bridge, about 15 minutes prior to the one in the next photo.



I think the curve of the sidewalk looks romantic. Not that I think the street sections that encircle the elk statue look that way. Do you think it's the chain-and-post barrier that makes it appear that way to me? Afterall, the curves follow the same line which you can see even better in the photo below.





Sidewalks segment both Chapman and Lownsdale Squares. This one goes from Madison northeast to Salmon at SW 3rd, in Lownsdale Square. Later on we'll go into detail about the monument in the circle. In the photo below, you see the same sidewalk, looking southeast.





The western edge of Lownsdale Square is SW 4th Avenue. In this photo, you're looking due south. Those are the same orange cones you saw in the first sidewalk photo. A remote van for a local TV station had placed wires across the sidewalks and lawns. Can you find the van in this photo?

Think back to yesterday's photo. Remember the green trees in a row, just to the left of the chain-and-post barrier? I took these next three photos standing beneath one of them, a gingko in the early stages of going from green to gold. I love the way it looks against the orange and rust-colored leaves of the taller tree. The wind blew just enough to move the green limbs, so I put the camera setting on sport. With that help, I managed to get some photos and/or portions of photos that I think turned out pretty good.