Local Color

Recent days have been gray and wet, but the persistent gloom could not diminish the intensity of the advancing fall color. The color always seems more saturated to me on days without sun; there is less sparkle, but there are more intense hues. I took a stroll around my house this morning with my camera, to see what was there. The shrub that wins the prize each year for most brilliant scarlet coloration is the Euonymus compacta, Burning Bush, which always lives up to its name.

Many ferns simply turn brown in the fall, but these alongside the pond glow with warm yellows and reds.

The dying rosa rugosa leaves are a rich earthy red, while the hips have paled and shriveled.

The very annoying Virginia Creeper (which goes everywhere and anywhere, attempting to smother trees and shrubs) puts on a gorgeous show.

The fall color of peony leaves adds another season of interest to my favorite flower; not only are the leaves fresh and bright all summer after flowering, they also display a range of reds, oranges, burgundies and yellows as their chlorophyll disappears. The color of this "Charlie's White" rivals that of the sugar maple in the distance.

Here, a view over the browning grassy field adjacent to my barn to a group of trees that each year flames with colors, colors that seem impossible, that always amaze me. It's as though nature's symphony is at its crescendo, before the diminuendo of approaching winter.