Beech Transformation

The Weekly Photo Challenge this week is ‘Transmogrify’. What a word! This is what it means:

transmogrify
/tranzˈmɒɡrɪfʌɪ,trɑːnz-,-ns-/
verb humorous
transform in a surprising or magical manner.
“his home was transmogrified into a hippy crash pad”

Well, in nature things shouldn’t be that surprising as they happen on a regular basis, but it still thrills me at this time of year when I look out of my bedroom window at this:

My beautiful Beech tree is looking amazing at the moment. So much colour – yellow, gold, orange, brown and still some green. Isn’t it lovely? I’m so lucky to have this in my hedge right outside. Please excuse the strange small shape half way up the left side of this image – that’s the handle on my window – it won’t open any further!

But what about the the transmogrification process, or if you prefer (it’s easier to say) – the transformation…

Back in the winter there were no leaves, making it a great place to take a photo of the sunset, with a lovely silhouette:

And when it was rainy it collected the droplets on its bare branches, looking like it was decorated with jewels:

As spring approached, the buds began to fatten up:

And then the joy of fresh delicate green leaves emerging:

These 2 photos are quite old, before I found my style for processing images, but I’m including them so you can see the full tree in spring. First with only some of the leaves emerged:

And then in full leaf:

After a summer of lush green leaves, the colour started to change, just a little at first:

And back to the present, this time viewed from the path outside my front door: