Today, I’m grateful for the colors I see on my daily walk.
I’m grateful that I don’t need to step far from home to take in the colors that autumn brings right to my own neighborhood.
What are you grateful for today?
Today, I’m grateful for autumn colors in New England.
We took a trip up north to Vermont last weekend to visit friends, but also to do some leaf-peeping. It turns out that the oranges and yellow were gorgeous, but the deep reds were mostly gone. And when we drove south again, toward home, we discovered the reds on full display. Our part of New England is just reaching its peak colors. What a gift!
What are you grateful for today?
Today, I’m grateful for this first day of September.
In this strange year, where summer is passing quietly by, I welcome the cooler mornings and the change in the air that means fall is coming. No school-aged children live in my house, but still, the delay of the school year due to Covid-19 makes it feel like I’m holding my breath sometimes. In any case, I’m thankful for this new month that will hopefully bring some changes.
What are you grateful for today?
A season of mixed messages . . .
It’s been a while since my last installment of this Photo Project. Life got busy and the trees, well, they stayed green all summer!
The scene outside my window didn’t change much, but I think some of the settings on my camera may have been altered. (Oops!) I went on vacation, probably tweaked some settings and then couldn’t remember the original ones. As a result, the color differences in the August and September photos above may be technical and not physical. Oh, well! Live and learn.
In October, I dare say that the subtle foliage changes were a bit disappointing. The maple tree on the left side of this view usually explodes in a brilliant red every autumn. But I don’t think it ever fully recovered from that worm attack in the spring.
Its ragged leaves managed a rusty red, while the trees just to the right of my chosen view showed off their own magic!
But, back to the scene I chose to observe…
From mid-October until the last week of the month, the colors morphed. (Pardon my lens hood crowding the corners!)
Then, on October 29th, it happened: FALL!!!
As the calendar turned to November, the wind took more and more leaves down, stripping most of the trees bare.
The end of the year brings with it the promise of trees covered in snow and ice. I’ll keep shooting and wrap up this project in January 2016, bringing it full circle from the blizzard of January 27, 2015 seen in my first Photo Project entry.
In the meantime, I’ve got some leaves to rake…
Autumn is a season of change. The daylight hours shorten, the nights become cooler, and school is back in session. Actually, for the first time since 1989, no one in my own household headed back to school this September. That in itself signifies change. But here in New England, beautiful foliage displays are the most celebrated change of all.
Several years ago, on an October drive to visit one of my daughters attending a Vermont college, I was blown away by the brilliance of color. Wave after wave of reds, oranges, and yellows bloomed before me as I drove the hills and curves of Interstate Routes 93 and 89. Ever since that drive, I’ve wanted to take a leaf-peeping adventure every year. And living just 30 minutes south of the New Hampshire border, you’d think I’d have done it every year. But no. Fall is a busy time of year and weekends are precious. Last year, my husband and I planned ahead to combine a foliage trip with an Alchemist Brewery truck sale. Guess what! It rained. Hard. Of course, we got the beer, but the sightseeing was a bust!
This year, every weekend seems to be booked. Life, as usual, has gotten busy. But I’ve been thinking. The old saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” could be tweaked to say: “the foliage is always redder, oranger (I know, not really a word), and yellower on the other side of the border.” It’s all about perspective. We really don’t need to climb the fence or cross the border to find the vibrancy. We just need to change our thinking and open our eyes. So, I did.
And here’s some of what I found less than a mile from home…
And also less than a mile from home is a soccer field at which I spent many an autumn as a busy, distracted soccer mom. I hardly ever stopped to appreciate the view. This year, I decided to track the changing colors. The first photo was taken on September 21st. The last one was taken this morning. Enjoy!
Chapter 3 