Deciduous (落叶的, 落葉性の, 낙엽)

In SoCal there's a shortage of them, but thank heavens for deciduous trees, or the ones where the leaves fall off, (literally meaning "falling off at maturity" because otherwise we wouldn't have fall leaves season, which is absolutely delightful for people like me who like to a.) take lots of road trips for long distances at a time and b.) have time to travel during the fall season, traditionally one of the slowest travel seasons of the year due to kids going back to school, people getting back to real life after the long summer travel season, etc. Deciduous also comes up very often in Jeopardy clues, either as the answer or as a well of narrowing down to get to an answer, like knowing that maples are deciduous trees (others are all the ones you'd expect like beeches, oaks, pines), Latin for "falling off," opposite of "coniferous" tree or "evergreen.' 

I recently discovered that driving is a therapeutic experience for me, allowing me to relax in a car while driving down wide and straight roads without worrying about all the other things in life and having a destination in mind. It's even more so when fall leaves are lining both sides of the road; early in the season they're be mainly green leaves everywhere, but just a few orange, yellow, and red trees playing off the green nicely......it's a gradual changing of the color, but a sudden burst at the climax when seemingly every tree turns at the same time. That's when you want to be out in the world experiencing that, especially with the cold air starting to blow in marking the definite end of summer (even in the current climate) and the coming of winter. 

MJ and I also recently got into sculpture gardens and visited Storm King Art Center for the second time: because once is just enough, and also because it was rainy and damp the first time. We like the vibes of large, vast parks that are miles wide and feature sculptures on mountains, in the fields, in the valleys, on a lake, just dotted all over the park, blending a mixture of some of my favorite things: being outside, sunlight, walking around, art, sculptures, and enjoying the fall foliage outside during running weather (not too hot and sweaty, but not enough to put on a jacket). Sculpture parks (not just gardens, these places are huge!) are like giant zoos except the exhibitions are sculptures, giant expressions of art, not animals held against in captivity against their will (how MJ sees it and I begrudgingly now kind of see it) and you're not waiting for the lion to wake up to do something; the art's always there and present. I was impressed with the symmetry, the style, the careful design, the format of the sculpture park; the structure of the park itself is art, much like an art museum isn't just artistic because of the paintings or artwork they display, but in the way that they display it: hanging collages in certain places, the sloping interior hallways, and the design of the musem itself: I say that if the human race eventually gets wiped out (a matter of time, but how much time?) and aliens or some other sentient species discovers the remants of Earth, they'll be appalled by all the pollution and waste and the captivity of other living creatures, but then maybe they'll come to a structure park and understand at least we're a sophisticated species, we were able to appreciate more than just the carnal things in life like football or shopping malls, we had a little bit of aesthetics in us after all. That could be the legacy of sculpture parks: a reminder of our humanity. Oh and blogs like this one: ordinary human beings able to express themselves. 

As living proof of my developing interests and changing preferences as I age, I used to want to go to all the MLB baseball stadiums in America, then go on a college campus tour across America (still kind of want to do that), then an art museum tour.....now that's even changed a bit to all the famous sculpture parks in America. Preferably during fall foliage (deciduous leaves) seaosn.