Summer Shadows

Summer brings a different quality of light to the Appalachian forest. It’s not just the season’s leaves that alter the pattern of shadows. The sun is as far north on the horizon as it will ever be, so the sun shines at a higher angle than it does in the winter. It is this steeper angle of sun that creates different seasonal lighting effects throughout the forest, as much as the presence or absence of leaves.

So all this is simply the explanation leading up to what it means when I say that now it looks like summer in the forest. It’s not just the leaves. It’s not just the temperature or the hazy skies. It’s the sunlight and how it looks that now says “summer” to my eye.