Autumn leaves stuck in fresh tarmac
Susan sez, "On one of the roads I walk by on my morning commute, the ground was re-paved and a bunch of leaves got stuck into the pavement. It is so beautiful!" Leaves stuck in the pavement on Cromwell (Thanks, Susan!)
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Looks absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully traffic doesn't grind it away too quickly.
Truly wonderful
When I lived in San Francisco, my roommate's mother (nicknamed The Hobbit) in Massachusetts would gather and press hundreds of brightly colored leaves to send to us. We glued them to the windows and strewed them on the floors for a month or so until the colors faded.
Gives a new meaning to street art. I'd like to see another picture of this in a few days' time, or later, to see the effects of traffic and time on the leaves and the pavement. It's really quite beautiful.
Awesome. I hope it stays like that forever.
Wow.That is quite stunning.
Somebody out there in Public Works Planning should do this deliberately.
The best reason to paint a street with clear nail polish - ever.
I'm glad I saw it when it was fresh, I think having seen it like this would just make seeing it when it's been scrubbed away by buses and taxis and damp from rain would just make it look very sad.
it is beautiful, and it happens all the time - it's not actually stuck in the paving, but just pressed in by cars driving over the wet leaves. something about the thicker grain of tarmac in the bus lanes makes it stick better.
i used to live in turnpike lane in london where gorgeous great trees would litter the ground, and the right amount of rain and traffic would produce this effect..
It's been like that for a couple weeks. It was re-paved a while ago. The leaves will fade a bit, and then more fall off the nearby trees and get stuck again. It's funny though because I also see the public works guys sweeping up the leaves nearby and I'm always tempted to free the leaves in their rubbish bin and pour them over the road.
[oh and Matt, this is in London (: ]
Here are two more pictures:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/reveurenchante/CIMG4496.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/reveurenchante/CIMG4493.jpg
Park Lane looks like that, too. I love it. But I notice its only the bus lanes. I wonder if it is as a result of lower traffic, or something to do with the difference in the surface? I'm learning towards the latter, since I notice the leaves in the road where the Big Bus Company tours park, and by the Dorchester where the black cabs turn.
I do all my walking on a concrete trail through the woods. The concrete was laid down in the fall, and the entire length of it has indentations of leaves, pinecones, and other tree debris that got stuck as the concrete dried, and then rotted away.
It's really striking, and if the trail weren't six miles long I would think it was done that way deliberately.
These leaves are pretty too, but I'll bet there's no permanent record come springtime...
Concrete fossils!
I think I would like to leave a fresh, crisp, $20-dollar bill and watch people try to pick it up for decades
Ha ha
That looks beautiful, anyone have any idea where this picture was taken?
Love this!
Taken on Cromwell road in Kensington of London. Two sections of the road are like this.... one right outside of the Cromwell hospital and then another a bit down the road. Between Earls Court and Gloucester.
What a wonderfully serendipitous happening!
sweet.
Crazy - I was thinking of blogging that just yesterday. Seems to be happening all over London, on newly surfaced bus and bike lanes. Funny - I have never noticed it before. New surfacing material being used in London this year? Or particularly sticky leaves? Or?
Millions of years from now, scientists descended from cockroaches will discuss whether this is proof that humans and trees existed at the same time.
or trees who want to beautify london and evolved their leaves to shed at appropriate times! or something...
I can't comment about the age of that particular road surface but this is common on identical surfaces, bus lanes or otherwise, yong and old.
It's due to a combination of wet weather, falling leaves, a rough anti-skid surface, and the all important compression factor of London's buses and other heavy transport (ie, heavier than cycle).
It's common on these types of surface, the leaves do wear away but it can happen to anti skid surfaces which are well established.
Over here (in the UK) certain sections of road are treated with this non skid surface - approaches to roundabouts, designated crossing areas (some of which are labelled Pelican, Puffin, Toucan and Zebra crossings), places like that.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070108
http://www.sightgrip.com
Best. Tarmac. Ever.