We have yet to hit peak
color this autumn, at least here in central New England. Some of the trees have already popped and
plopped – suddenly colorful then suddenly naked. Many of the trees haven’t turned at all
yet. If we can hold off the crazy weather
and avoid high winds and drenching rains for two more weeks, we will have had
one of the longest, most colorful fall palettes in a while.
For the last couple of
years, I have taken the back road to the college my youngest attends. The road runs parallel to the highway, and
what this road lacks in speed, it gains in uncongested ease. The extra ten or fifteen minutes that I am in
the car are far superior to the crapshoot of possibly being stuck in
bumper-to-bumper, stopped-dead traffic with no hope of escape. The two highlights of this time of year and
this route: the tree in front of the
superintendent of school’s office in Derry, and Lake Massabesic in Manchester.
I know from experience
that the tree in Derry is a quick changer – colorful one day, naked the next. As I pass the superintendent’s office, I
suddenly take a sharp right and enter through the “exit only.” The tree is partially green and partially
orange, like a colorful lollipop I used to get at the bank when I was a kid. I know what will happen if I decide to wait
until the whole tree has changed. I have
seen this tree before. I grab the camera
from the back seat and snap a couple of photos because I know that soon, maybe
even tomorrow, the tree will shed all of its leaves.
I stop at the lake,
expecting the same colorful New Hampshire array that I have seen all the way
north from Massachusetts. Instead, the
lake is largely green still. I’m a
little disappointed that there isn’t more color. I
It will be weeks before I
get a chance to see the lake again, and I hope it doesn’t change too quickly
without me. The tree in Derry, though,
has already lost all of its color, lost all of its leaves. Still we have yet to reach peak
conditions. I hope autumn takes its time,
but I’ll keep batteries in the camera and my cell phone charged, just in case.
I’m not going to miss
autumn this time.
