Homeowner's Norway maple has great timing
Tree turns bright red every Sept. 21
The towering Norway Maple in Mike Sabadash's front yard tells time.
"It must have an internal calendar," Sabadash marvelled this week. "Its leaves are dark green. Then on Sept. 21 every year it turns absolutely scarlet red."
However, on the first day of fall this year Sabadash's 40-footer is more of a rusty red hue.
Climatologists report this year's flush of fall colours in southern Ontario won't be as vibrant as usual due to an unseasonably dry summer. Toronto just experienced its driest summer on record in 50 years.
That news doesn't dampen the West Humber man's enthusiasm for his beloved tree.
"It was 1967. My kids were quite small at the time, and we'd gone to the Eglinton and Kipling (avenues) park. It was just small, so I grabbed hold of it. I planted it in my yard, and I've been babying it ever since."
Environment Canada meteorologists predict the warm weather will continue, with much of Canada including southern Ontario, experiencing above normal temperatures through November.
