Dead things

Autumn is moving into winter in Benmore Gardens. There are still carpets of gold under some trees, but where a month ago there were flaming colours round the pond there are now bare trees and shades of brown everywhere. The trees that still have leaves look wispy and insubstantial, and the only ones that remain unchanged are the evergreens.

I can't recall what these plants that look like brown paper bags on sticks were like, but today they reminded me of dead Triffids. Remember John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids"? I read it first in P6, when I was eleven, and it made a huge impression on me. These then are vanquished triffids, dying untidily beside the pond.