The Beginning of the Autumn Colors

Here is some exciting news: a change is coming! The autumn colors are starting in central Pennsylvania. Fasten your seat belts, friends; it's going to be a great ride!

It was one of those amazing misty mornings, and I made two quick stops. One was at Millbrook, of course, and it featured an awesome array of huge spiders and dew-damp webs illuminated like lanterns in the morning light.

But before that, I spent just a few minutes at a tiny pond I know, where I like to watch the mist rise and move across the water. (You may remember this place; it's where I photographed the golden web about two weeks ago.) And there I noticed the gentle beginnings of autumn colors on the hill above the pond.

It is always exciting news, when the colors start to come. We have lots of deciduous trees, and if the conditions are right, the foliage colors can be pretty spectacular. In the past two weeks or so, I've started seeing some oranges and reds at the edges of things. In another few weeks, the color should be at full peak.

Some people feel sad about the coming of autumn, about the drawing down of the light, the movement toward winter and year's end. But autumn just may be my favorite season of all. No, as a lover of light, I don't like losing the light either.

But fall's cool, brisk mornings and its sunny, blue-sky afternoons are perfect for hiking and camping. I am energized; I feel a new spring in my step; I want to go everywhere, see everything. I want to be part of it, part of the change, part of the glorious celebration of color that is fall!

The song to accompany this image is about change. It's a classic Sam Cooke tune, A Change Is Gonna Come. You can find his and many other versions on YouTube if you like. The two versions I'm sharing are covers of this song, one by JW Cortes and Roger Waters, the other a rare soundcheck version performed by Bruce Springsteen.