Autumn can seem sad. Leaves drifting down can hint at our own mortality. But on the spectrum of beauty of all the seasons, autumn ranks high.
Aspens go golden early. Gilded leaves overlay the constant green of pine and fir.
Then red maples emblazen the wetland edges, fringing the hillside oaks and sugar maples.
Down low, one viburnum makes magenta on its shrubby maple leaves. Just above it moose maple trades its shamrock green for lemon-green.
Ironwood adds widespread yellows undistinguished from the blue beech tones. True beech shades into lettuce green on its way to copper tones to last all winter.
Sugar maples select along their spectrum from golden yellow through citrus orange all the way to scarlet.
Red oak leaves take on their namesake colours but shaded with magenta and plum.
White pines shed the dun of last year’s worn needles and poke fresh green boughs up through the hardwood palette.