Fall Color

After a late start, the Fall color is finally reaching Highlands, creeping up the sides of the mountains from greens into yellows into reds.  It has been unusually warm - the warmest October I remember since living here - and there has only been one light frost so far in Town (last Wednesday).   We are also in a drought, which at the ower elevations is making leaves turn brown and simply drop off early.  But up here on the Highlands Plateau there is spectacular color here and there - the maples on Fifth Street are stunning, and the burning bush on Smallwood Avenue is a hedge of fire.

"Beautiful day," visitors will say as we pass them on morning runs.  I told someone the other day, "Absolutely!  We wait all year for conditions like these!"  A breeze springs up and suddenly there is a shower of golden leaves coming down all around.  Bright, clear blue sky for days and days.  Surely there is no better season for running than this, or for simply walking as I did this afternoon, up Sunset Rocks.  The color is just at its peak now, and it won't last long.