Early Fall in Central NC

The central part of NC where I live in is still in the early part of fall.



We are usually two to three weeks behind the NC mountains. 



It's starting to look more and more like fall since the maples and dogwoods and a few other trees have put on their fall clothes.



The oak trees are among the last to change.



Living in a city with the nickname "City of Oaks" means until the oaks change colors we still have a lot of green.



My oaks haven't started changing at all yet.



But I have a lot of dogwoods in my yard and neighborhood which is making it colorful.



There also still a lot of flowers blooming.



The Japanese Magnolia above is not supposed to bloom until spring.



Although it's my next door neighbor's tree I think of it as mine since I see it from my kitchen window and I've seen numerous families move in and out of that house.



The first bunch of shots are ones I took yesterday at home and running errands.



I took the lake and trail shots today on the Falls Lake trail.



The magnolia I mentioned has bloomed too early before and lost the flowers to snow or hard freeze when tricked by a mild winter but by too early I mean February.



It's hard to imagine what will happen since it's already blooming in October. 



If it was just the few blossoms I wouldn't be concerned.



What worries me is that it's full of buds that shouldn't have started forming until late winter.



Bizarre to have buds and flowers before the leaves drop.



That type of magnolia loses it's leaves in the fall unlike the larger magnolias that keep their leaves year round.