This year, is a golden year.  At least for fall color. The maples didn’t really do much, so we have been content with the sassafras (which is gold this year, instead of psychedelic orange), hickory, beech, birch, tulip-tree, and witch-hazel.  They are being followed hard by the oaks, in the standard shades of bronze. A lovely fall day, even if we have yet to have a frost!!!!  I’m cutting things down anyway, enough is enough.

Fall is a time when the bones of the forest are suddenly revealed.  For those who live here, a New England forest can never be mysterious*, unlike a tropical forest or jungle, because each year the trees and the land are stripped.  Late fall and early spring are when a landscape can be truly understood.  Each tree stands alone, even in the densest stand.

*assuming, of course, one goes regularly into the woods!

 

(in other news, I recall commenting about the road and the probability of having to scrape people off of it a few days ago….a rear end collision in broad daylight, with no major injuries, doesn’t really count I suppose?  I feel bad for the black car trying to turn into the neighbour’s driveway, which was solidly rear-ended by the idiot behind them.  Stop texting and Keep Your Eyes on the Road!)