Sun-drenched Maples
October 25, 2009
At Farmington, Connecticut
The color of the fall foliage in Connecticut is never bad.
That is not to say it is always great. Some years are better than others. This season is a B.
Weather of course is a big factor. You want enough rain during the growing season but not too much. You want sunny fall days, cool fall nights. No hurricanes. No serious insect issues.
This year the heavy rains of spring and much of summer made many trees vulnerable to fungal diseases. I noticed some maples shed their leaves in September, likely afflicted with some dampness-related malady. We lost some fall color right there.
But then there was today, a Sunday with a clear blue sky following heavy rain yesterday. It was a day in which the yellows and golds of American beech, the hickories and the birches were brilliant against the sky, dominating the late-October foliage palette. Witch hazel, a fall-blooming small tree, put forth its diminutive, stringy yellow flowers as part of the understated understory display.
Crossing Lake Dunning in a kayak early afternoon it was as if the sun had dispatched a ray of sunshine for each of these trees, turning leafy canopies into radiant, mirror images of itself. Enough of a show, I thought, to make the season, and salvage the weekend.