October song

Any day now, the big flocks of Canada geese will fill the air over Roundtop. Last night for a few minutes I thought I heard the first group of them heading south. I changed my mind after I listened for a few minutes. It was only the local geese fussing or feeling antsy. Soon, they all took flight and moved to a different pond on the mountain, circling all around a time or two before they set down. The local geese don’t migrate, but the urge to move is still there in fall and they fly with little provocation. It’s as though October sings in their wings, even when there’s no place to go.
October started off on a very foggy note this morning. I couldn’t see the mountains. I could barely see to drive. Oddly, the only spot that was less foggy was the lowest point on my morning travels, down by the old stone bridge at the foot of Roundtop Mtn. After I took this photo I also noticed that the trees down here seemed a lot more green than up where I live.

Up on the mountain most trees are showing at least a few leaves that are displaying the colors of fall, though the trees with the most color are still no more than half-changed. Most show color on about 10-20% of the tree. Breezes have already forced more leaves off the trees and onto the forest floor than I would expect. That makes me wonder if the leaf change won’t look like much this year.

The forest is most beautiful when the trees all show their colors at about the same time. If a few leaves show color now, fall during the first breeze and then that cycle repeats, the leaves that remain on the trees are always the ones that are greenest. The leaves that are on the trees will grow ever fewer, but the dramatic colors of an all yellow and red forest never quite happens. I hope that’s not the case this year but if it is, it wouldn’t be the first time. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.