The color is peaking in style this year here in the northeast. Despite skepticism that it wouldn’t happen due to the drought, Autumn is delivering with a pupil-dilating, heart-opening array of almost trippy leaf psychedelia. We are pulsing with color and emotion here.

It started a couple of weeks ago with a strange, almost magical buildup of clouds after a drenching rain. Suddenly everything was pink and gold and very Maxfield Parrish.

From there, a vibrancy seemed to emanate from everything. The paw-paws came into season for a brief window of time. Have you ever had a paw-paw? They are a glowing, shocky-green and taste a bit like custard.

The photos do not do justice to the emotions brought on by the visual and aural vibrations of this season. I do not have the poetry for it. I cannot adequately grasp the words. Why does it evoke such ache and longing, and a strange yearning for the past? To walk out the door, sigh and gasp, and almost moan at the gorgeousness. Everything is ” Oh” and “wow”. Wow. Wow. Oh……..

Raindrops hover below crimson firebush leaves.

There are glimpses of endless blue beyond portals of gold.

The orchards are perfumed with the sweetness of ripened apples.

A trio of oak, maple and fir creates a lovely colorway.

Deeper in the forest, the mushrooms of autumn display their beauty – the smoky blue of black trumpets tucked amid the shady moss; the candy-corn colors of chicken-of-the-woods on a tree.

The scented air is an exotic blend of spices. The decaying leaves provide a carpet of many hues. The mountains glow.

There is a painfully delicious melancholy, a fleeting, soul-touching good-bye, as nature lets go before the sleep of winter.

~*~