"Objects in window are farther away than they appear."

Today I noticed that we either have really odd magnifying windows in the Penthouse, or there's an optical illusion that I've never noticed before. But every morning, I wake up to the view of this HUGE ball of golden leaves that takes up almost the entire southern view of our apartment window (because of the sun, I couldn't get a photo of what it looks like from my bedroom door). When I stepped outside to the deck to take a photo of it to share on here, I was mystified and dismayed by the fact that the tree is actually pretty tiny. But from my bedroom, this mass of gold looks HUMUNGOUS.

Then I noticed that when I'm walking toward the northern row of windows, the gingerbread eaves of the storefronts on Main Street that faces our building? Looks big and super close to our windows. The closer I get, though, the smaller and farther away it gets. Is this normal? Or is this just something that I've never really noticed before? In logic, I always thought that the farther away you get from an object, the smaller it appears, not the other way around? Or is this something that's offset by a certain type of glass used in windows?

Regardless: I get to see this huge pop of golden color every time I look or walk towards the southern part of the Penthouse. And I care less about why that is than about the fact that it's lovely and amazing and the most perfect view for fall.