Bob Law's Blog: Autumn Colours in Glasgow's West End

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Bob Law’s Blog: Autumn Colours in Glasgow’s West End

Autumn this year has been long lasting thanks to no major storms coming in off the Atlantic.

The West End of Glasgow has abundant deciduous tree cover thanks to all the parks and wooded spaces. Glasgow as a whole, indeed much of the western bowl of Scotland’s urban sprawl, from Johnstone/Kilmacolm direction in the west over to Airdrie/Lanark in the east consists of a huge area ringed by surrounding hills, covered in a patchwork quilt of woodland. Arguably, and somewhat ironically, the largest deciduous forest in Scotland lies not in the Scottish Highlands or Southern Uplands but within this major population hub.

When you get to a hilltop vantage point and look out over a sea of trees in every direction you realise how much ground they cover in such a densely packed area.

Our towns and cities would be very different places without them as they add so much to the landscape.

Even approaching mid November many trees in this sheltered area still retain a full canopy of leaves, although they will all drop soon.

Lasting this long it does help to make the winter seem shorter as once we get December and Christmas over with the days become longer again and the first spring flowers like snowdrops then crocus appear.

Autumn in the Great Urban Forest is always a spectacular affair as these photos show.

Bob Law, November, 2016.