Look Up, Look Down

This week, autumn foliage is at it’s best. Here in New England, the leaf peepers are driving erratically down our roads, ogling the colors. I’m one of them. Each year it’s breath-taking. Each year when it comes, it feels like a surprise and a gift.

 

foliage

 

We’re at that sweet spot when the oak trees have yet to turn brown. They’re still a deep green, which shows off the maples’ colors to their full orange effect.

oak and maple

 

But, don’t just look up. Look down.

The oak leaves aren’t falling yet, but the trees are dropping acorns. Squirrels and chipmunks are gleefully filling their mouths and scurrying about with this bonanza. Many other animals rely on acorns for sustenance. Bears. Maybe they’ll be so full that they’ll leave the coops alone.

acorns

 

Pine needles are dropping, too. Crisp air. The smell of pine. It’s nothing, nothing, like a scented candle.

pine needles

 

I was an artsy kid in high school and took two classes daily. This was the late 70s. One of my teachers was a fiber artist. She lived in Greenwich Village and commuted to the suburbs to work. We made things out of jute. I clearly remember her saying how much more real natural materials and colors were. In her mind the natural world was muted. I never understood that. I saw this,

maple leaves

 

and this:

maple

 

What is colorful in your world? I have many readers in Australia and Brazil. Do you see wild parrots? Back in high school I made a fiber hanging based on feathes from our pet lovebird – vibrant greens and yellow and reds (actually, rather like the colors in these photos) which shocked my teacher!

Comments:

  1. I miss the brilliant colors of autumn in New England. I am now transplanted in North Texas where our elected officials and the oil and gas industry managed to cover the region with heavy industrial mining sites, aka fracking. Towering oak trees which had thrived for decades are becoming sick and dying.

  2. I try to go snorkeling every week. There are brilliant blue and green parrot fish, blazing yellow tang, and many other wonderful combinations, set against the blues and green sandy ocean colors.

  3. I wish the voters here in North Carolina had had Fishcreek Neighbor’s comment about the trees fresh in their minds when the fracking issue came up here. And the legislators allowed the governing commission for fracking to be made up of the owners of the fracking companies! I really despair for this state. I won’t even start on the law allowing concealed carry permit holders to go almost everywhere. I don’t even have any colorful trees yet to soothe my fevered brow. Your beautiful pics will have to suffice.

  4. Your fall pics are gorgeous! We are planning a fall trip to see the leaves next year. I live in Central FL and the only fall colors we see here are the Crape Myrtles when they drop their leaves….small amounts of yellow and red. My orchids are in bloom right now and they are bursting with colors…yellow, white and purple, and solid deep purple. Soon my Christmas Cactus will bloom as well!

  5. I have lived in Vermont my whole life (for over 74 years now) and I am seeing the same colors as you. The leaf peepers are doing the same thing, ogling and stopping in the middle of the road, jumping out of their cars to take pictures. I don’t fault them one bit and now that I’m retired, I have more patience with them. I too am struck by the colors every year, will never get tired of fall foliage.

  6. I have a love/hate relationship with fall. I have circulatory issues so winter is bad for me and fall lets me know the misery season is coming. But I adore the colors of fall. I like to pick up leaves before they are dry and modgepodge them. As they dry, they curl and the modgepodge keeps them from cracking and crumbling. It also keeps my idiot cats from eating them and then puking them up all over the house. I use them as decorations. I also press them in books to make them flat for other crafts. My kids, when they were younger, would cut out paper pumpkins for place mats and modgepodge the leaves and the pumpkins together. Such beautiful colors. It’s a shame spring couldn’t be what follows fall. :)

  7. I love the second to last photo- a lovely blanket of leaves!

    No colors hear yet, so I’ll share my favorite smells:
    One of the few enjoyable things on a hot, dry S. California day, is the smell of a pine tree. You stand in a little island of shade, and the tree seems to ooze a wonderful fragrance. You’re right, this smell can’t be imitated…

  8. Yes, we have colourful parrots all year round on our Australian bush property. The only time I wish they’d go away is fruit-ripening time (coming up in a month or so). :-(

  9. Beautiful colors in the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge. It is like a wonderland! We are expecting heavy rains and wind tonight and tomorrow. That will bring the leaves down.