The Babs Young Fall Assessment is in. She writes: Fall is here and peak color is gone, gone, gone. It was not a spectacular year, but we have had such lovely days that made it a good fall.
Nooooooooo!!!! Surely there will be more trees set on fire at dawn and dusk. Surely the golden glow at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop will last another week. Surely there is time for one more picnic overlooking the lake. One more glimpse of brilliant leaves reflected in the water.
I can feel it receding, blown south by winds from the Canadian prairie. I reach out for it and cloud shadows race across the fields. The sun hides, the gold fades. Just one more thing to let go . . . But I am not resigned.
Posted in: Babs Young photos, Up North in Michigan
Torch Lake Views 
uphilldowndale
October 18, 2010
So long as there is light there will be colour. Muted maybe.
Gerry
October 18, 2010
Rich old gold, that’s the ticket. And burnished leather.
P.j. grath
October 18, 2010
Sumac, for instance, is past its peak, but oaks are just coming into their own, and we have peak color in the cherry orchards still ahead of us, though maple leaves are flying off the trees. I know there have been more colorful falls, objectively speaking, but the pleasantness of this year’s temperatures, combined with the long, drawn-out sequence of colors, had seemed–and still seems–spectacular to me.
Gerry
October 18, 2010
Me too! Me too!
Karma
October 18, 2010
I hope you are right, Gerry! I am with you – very not ready to let it all go! It is hard to believe that Halloween is nearly upon us.
Gerry
October 18, 2010
I’m fully prepared for Halloween. All I have to do is put off my haircut for another week and I will frighten small children and spaniels both.
Cindy Lou
October 19, 2010
Our fall is mostly gone….still some color in the smaller trees. As you said so wonderfully, Gerry – we’re down to the old gold and burnished leather. Beautiful in their own ways!
Gerry
October 19, 2010
Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head.
kanniduba
October 19, 2010
It ain’t over till the green maple sings….I mean, turns yellow. ;). I have a big ol’ fabulous maple in my front yard that is still green, and is always the very last in the neighborhood to drop (much to the annoyance of our across-the-street neighbors who have long since raked all their leaves, but will inevitably have to rake our’s when those brisk winds blow my late falling leaves in their direction.). I know that one day soon, I will wake up and come down to a living room glowing yellow, and that is when I will heave a sigh and know it is, indeed, over for another year.
Gerry
October 19, 2010
I used to have that tree! When I lived in my beloved Grandmont, my “berm tree” was the last to leaf out in spring and the last to turn gold in autumn. More than once its green leaves were decked out in snow. I think it’s very clever of you to arrange for the neighbors to rake your leaves. I used to employ that strategy, too. Enjoy that glowing day that’s coming.
Karma
October 19, 2010
I’ve got one of those trees too! Its a sycamore with huge, obnoxiously sized leaves, all for the most part still green. They usually finish falling around Thanksgiving.
Gerry
October 19, 2010
Curiouser and curiouser.
Scott Thomas Photography
October 19, 2010
Yea, the storm that hit the east coast last week did a number on our trees here. Still some color left but not much.
If we get some warm, dry days over the next week, the smell in the woods will be heavenly.
Gerry
October 19, 2010
I can’t imagine why no one has ever made a cologne in that fragrance. I wonder if I could make a potpourri of pinecones and acorns and birchbark and crispy leaves and cedar . . . back later.
Kate on Clinton
October 20, 2010
Beautiful. So far, we’re seeing little color in Brooklyn. I’m worried that the crazy storms we have had traumatized the area trees and many are just turning brown.
Gerry
October 20, 2010
Thank you, Kate. I think trees that just turn brown will do fine, so long as the leaves actually drop, and don’t linger until the snows come. All the worst damage in my woods comes when a heavy snow weighs down a still-leafy crown, rather than falling through bare branches as is proper!