Cynthia Kuhn

It’s Fall, Finally

🍁 Happy First Week of Fall, my very favorite season.

There’s something about the cooler temperature that perks me right up.

Not to mention snuggly sweaters, all the pumpkins, and everything Halloween.

But perhaps most of all, it’s the Fall Foliage. Yes, it has to be capitalized like that because it is a thing on the east coast. People travel miles–even states–to see it.

When I was growing up (in upstate New York), I took it for granted. Every year, the leaves turned the most amazing colors, from the deepest reds and oranges to all shades of yellows. It was like nature was putting on all of the best dresses in her closet at once and throwing a botanical ball.

Breathtaking.

We would actually pile into the car on weekends to go for drives and look at leaves. At some points, we would park, tromp around in the woods, and gather as many fallen leaves as we could hold. We’d often press them between pieces of wax paper or use them in some kind of art projects.

The leaves out west do change in a beautiful way, but there are not nearly as many shades and variations; every fall I find myself deeply missing The Foliage.

So now, for a few minutes of peaceful reflection, here are some leaves we can all enjoy together (pretend we are taking a walk)!

 

image source: pixabay

What are your favorite fall activities? And do the leaves change where you are?

45 thoughts on “It’s Fall, Finally”

  2. The Fall is my favorite as well, even though it brings on the only season with allergies for me. I don’t care. It is beautiful. I live in New England, where most years is just stunning.
    We were married in October. We honeymooned in TN. The yellows and oranges in the Smoky Mountains were gorgeous, BUT there were no bright reds. One day we were driving along the Blue Ridge and we slammed on the brakes, I had to jump out and take a picture, one of many. There it was! ONE LONE RED TREE! I think it was the only one in the state. I’m probably wrong about that, but it was at least where we were.
    I can’t wait for the trees to turn around my house. For now, I’ll take the cool and crisp temps and a snuggly sweater to go with my pumpkin muffin and coffee. I loved your pictures! Enjoy the Autum!
    Carol

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  3. Cynthia, those photos are breathtaking. Love it!

    I love fall. I grew up in Western New York and now I’m in southwestern Pennsylvania, both great areas for The Foliage. I’m starting to see pictures from my alma mater campus and I adored it in the fall. The red brick buildings with the terra-cotta tile roofs nestled in an area called by the Senecas The Enchanted Mountains. It was so beautiful. I also remember taking drives, especially with my grandparents, on the weekends to “look at the leaves.”

    Now I’m in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, which look amazing when we get a good Foliage season. Even more trees down where we bought The Cottage and I can sit and look at a mountain right from my front porch. A local photographer takes the most beautiful pictures of the area and I can’t wait to see his pictures from this year.

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  4. I feel so relaxed, now! Thank you, Cyn! Here in my Santa Cruz neighborhood, the best we can do is the few liquidambar trees whose red and orange fall leaves flutter around our street.

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  5. Thanks for these pictures of Foliage, Cyn! I went to undergrad in upstate NY, and I do miss all the pretty colors. We definitely don’t get enough lovely fall trees out here, although once in a while I do spot a leaf or two.

    For autumn, we usually do some kind of pumpkin-something baking (bread, muffins, etc.). We’ve also gone apple picking, which was fun, but really not the same as the East Coast.

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  6. Cynthia, I love those photos! Fall is my favorite season, too, for the same reason. We are just starting to see a little red and yellow in the leaves here in Kansas City. Bob and I have to point out all the red trees. And the brilliant oranges. Here we’ll get the best color in mid-late October.

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  7. I’m in southeastern PA (waving across the state at Liz) The Pocono Mountains are close to me, so that’s the hot spot to do a beautiful fall drive. But all over town can be beautiful too, it’s just something about the trees changing colors in the mountains…

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    1. Oh, I bet that is gorgeous, Tracy! And yes, it’s the colorful mountains I think of most. Something about the whole effect of the colors blanketed out over them…

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  8. Thank you from Dallas, where in early December we get about two days of yellow trees, and then they all fall off. I’m heading to Colorado next week and hoping to see some gorgeous aspens…

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  9. I was just on the east coast. Sadly, a little too early to see the Fall Foliage.

    Honestly, I spend most of fall mourning the loss of summer, which is my favorite season.

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      4. I have only heard of these winds from the movie The Holiday (one of my faves). They’re magic, right?

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  10. I’m another transplant from upstate New York. We get lovely pops of autumn color here in Oregon, but what we don’t get is the massing, the whole hillsides aflame, because we have primarily evergreen trees. I miss the vivid panoramas.

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  11. I miss fall so much. I grew up in NY – downstate. My family would go apple picking or even do fall foliage trips to VT. I also loved that fall was the harbinger of the Christmas holidays, my favorite. But I don’t miss what followed them! Months of miserable cold.

    Still I miss seasons. I don’t care what native Californians say, we don’t have them here. Especially nowadays. It feels like every day is a repeat of the last hot and dry – or worse, sometimes humid. I’ll take that in NOLA or NY. Not L.A.!

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    1. Yes, foliage trips! Exactly! And Vermont is so, so pretty, leaf-wise (now am thinking about the maple syrup stores/candies). Also miss seasons. We have them in Colorado, technically, but winter is all different temperatures—many was the year that people wear shorts at the holidays. On the east coast, when winter comes, it hunkers down!

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  12. “Every year, the leaves turned the most amazing colors, from the deepest reds and oranges to all shades of yellows. It was like nature was putting on all of the best dresses in her closet at once and throwing a botanical ball.” This is a lovely, evocative image, Cynthia. You should be a writer!

    I love fall too. I’m staring at the most impossibly blue sky here in Colorado today but everything is still mostly green here at my house. We have an Autumn Purple Ash tree in our front yard and some years it’s so beautiful it makes me cry. (Other years it gets an early frost and makes me cry too, but for a different reason.)

    My daughter went to college in OR at one of those picture perfect campuses. We went to visit her in October one year and I marveled at how many leaves covered the sidewalks. It was so fun to crunch through them! Then she said, “Yes, but when it rains, all those leaves turn these sidewalks into slippery skating ribbons.” Ah well.

    You’re going to think I’m nuts, but one of the things I look forward to every autumn is using my leaf vacuum in the yard. It is SO SATISFYING to vacuum up all those leaves and turn them into mulch for my flower beds. So. Satisfying.

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    1. (Ha ha! I do want to be a writer, thank you!)

      Leaf crunching on sidewalks is the best.

      I want video of your leaf vaccuuming, please…and am happy that you’ve discovered a special favorite fall thing.

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  13. Ahhhhhhhhhh… so lovely. I feel peaceful just reading your descriptions and looking at those photos!

    Those autumn days of yore sound absolutely idyllic, Cynthia! We don’t have a botanical ball in Central Oregon, but it’s definitely a semi-formal with colorful leaves twirling in the high desert winds.

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  14. Love what you wrote, Cynthia. Foliage and nostalgia seem to go together. Here in Minnesota, we do get color, but I’ll be visiting my home state of Maine soon where the reds are more intense.

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  15. Fall is my favorite time of the year! One of my favorite childhood memories is jumping into huge piles of leaves on the lawn. Every time I pass one in the neighborhood I get tempted…

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  16. Come ye, come ye to New England! Here in NH the leaves are just starting to turn. Every night we get the foliage map report, from Canada down through CT. In our neighborhood right now the trees are a literal mix—within each tree: bright green, bright yellow, bright orange, and bright red. Rain plus sunshine plus cold nights is the trick, so it’ll be a banner year. We call the tourists “leaf peepers,” or sometimes just “peepers,” for short. Come visit and I’ll buy you cider—and an apple cider donut!

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    3. YAY You are super situated for terrific leaf peeping, Lisa! Wish we could look out your windows and see the foliage all around your neighborhood.

      And I forgot that fall always meant a visit to the cider mill. They sold delicious cold gallons of cider alongside delicious fried cakes. (Maybe they are the same donuts you have?)

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  17. Beautiful pics, Cynthia! In the U.P., leaves are starting to turn in patches here and there. It’s a little early for us, but I’m not complaining. Some years it snows, and the leaves just fall off!

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    1. We have had that early snow that knocks leaves off too–one year it knocked down tree branches and power lines too and was a terribly dangerous thing. I forgot about that!

      So happy that you’re having some leaf changes (still on the tree)!

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