This has been the most beautiful fall that I can remember. Possibly, I say that every autumn. But, this year it does seem extra-special. Maybe it’s because the weather has perfect and the blue skies set off the colors. Or maybe it’s been that I’ve been seeing it from the back of a horse. Still, some years the colors are dull. Some years the trees change, but a storm blows through, ripping the leaves off of the branches so that the show of color is only fleeting. A couple of years ago we had a snowstorm right before Halloween and no one could get out of their houses to go trick or treating.
This year, though, the beauty is here, and instead of being fleeting, it gets more and more stunning as the days pass. This is a tree in my front yard.
Here it is a week later.
What makes this so gorgeous are the layers of color. Look closely and you see patterns in bright green, shocks of orange, and that glowing yellow. All against a dark trunk and blue sky. I mean, really. Really.
Even those of us who have lived in New England for decades find ourselves stopping our cars and gaping at the light coming through a tree, or the sight of hayfield with luminescent oranges and yellows ringing a green swath of grass with a pale mist hovering over all. Where is the photo of that scene you ask? I’m not a tourist. I think, “I’ll pop over to the store to pick up a gallon of milk” and then I end up parked on the side of the road, staring.
The goats are delighted. Some of the leaves are delicious. Some aren’t, but they’re all interesting to snuffle through.
Here in my town, the horse paddocks are rocky. But, right now they are being carpeted with sweet-smelling pine needles. The horses like that, although they do get a bit sticky from the pine tar.
It’s so beautiful that it seems superfluous to decorate the house for the season. This is all that I’ve put on the front porch.
It’ll be there until the hens need another pumpkin to busy themselves with. When it’s gone, it won’t matter. There’s beauty all around.
I got chills reading this. Fall is beauty. I stop and stare a lot. Life it too short to rush through ….everyone should stop and appreciate. Good reminder. Have a great weekend!
My favorite time of the year.
Many move south for the warmer climates, find me a climate with fall a year round and I gone!
I agree with Ken, Fall is definitely my favorite time of year, also!
The tree in your yard is beautiful, Terry! The pumpkin in the chair looks just right!
Colors are changing here in the Ozarks! It seems to be a good year for brilliant colors!
That second photo is so gorgeous! Is that a sugar maple?
Terry, I know just what you mean. The world just seems to glow. We’re getting some color here in central North Carolina but it doesn’t begin to compare to New England. One more thing I miss.
This is the season to miss your old town, Carolyn.
isn’t that strange. every year we here in s.w. wisconsin have lovely fall colors. bright with clear air, sometimes even sunshiny – it never lasts too long, but, what with the hills to view the trees against, they’re really a picture.
this year?
forget it.almost all the trees still have their leaves, they’re not changing color, exactly, so much as the leaves are just hanging on and looking drab and lifeless.
to the point people are talking about it – meet a stranger, start to visit, they’ll ask -how are your trees doing? are they changing colors by you?’
and they aren’t.
but the pay-off was the actual weather. we did have the greatest weather – almost like it had been ordered – all thru the fall up until now.
win some, lose some
We had a year like that a few years back. It was mostly brown.One year, though, instead of oranges, most trees turned purple! You never know.
On the way to Maine today I passed a pine tree that had lost most of its lower branches so it only had a green tuft on top. But sumac had grown up the trunk making it brilliant red. Mother Nature’s firecracker. The color this year has been extraordinary. I found myself, like you, sitting in the car at the supermarket looking at a spectacular tree with opalescent color.
Thank you for the photos and your reflections…love appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us…and the blessing of “seeing” it…sometimes with the wonder and awe as if it were the first time.
Is the pumpkin the girls are eating from the red chair?
No, I’m keeping that one bit of decoration on the porch :)