leaves

It's been a very interesting fall foliage season. The historical peak of the season is on Columbus Day which this year was on October 9th. The foliage wasn't even close to peak at that time. It was at least a week later. Was that due to a warm and sunny October or the long term effects of global warming, probably a little of both.
Both Allyn and I noticed that many of the leaves weren't turning this year, they were just drying up, and falling off the trees. This happened early in the process and was certainly due to the very dry conditions. Our conclusion was that it was going to be a bad year for the leaf peepers. But driving around here recently you see that the turning leaves are beautiful. We've had a string of beautiful foliage years, and this would certainly have to count among them.
We're probably a little past peak right now, but there's still plenty of beautiful viewing in store. The leaves by now have thinned out on many of the trees and there's a beautiful contrast between the leaves and the dark branches underneath.

Leaves will start to drop from the tops while some remain on the bottoms of the trees. Sometimes these are among the most beautiful.

I've written a lot about this season of seasons here in Vermont, and I plan to be writing more. I feel privileged to witness this wonderful transformation year after year.