I was on my way to work earlier this week with the radio on. The announcer introduced a streeter– where a reporter stops random people to have them respond to a question – about favourite things about fall.
One gentleman talked about the fall colours, and called the transition from green leaves to the riot of colour that is autumn “stationary fireworks.” It created such vivid pictures in my head that I had to write about it.
Fall is my favourite season. The temperature is comfortable, the new apples are in season and nature is showing off in technicolour. There really is something magical about the riot of colour that descends upon this part of the world in the fall. Yes, you can explain it all away with the science of chlorophyll breakdown and chemical processes resulting in pigment changes, but it’s still magic to me.
As a young child, I had a book that talked about Mother Nature – or maybe it was Jack Frost – taking out a paintbrush each fall and going from tree to tree and leaf to leaf changing their colours, depending on the paints they had that day. It was the stuff of many a fall night’s dream.
A few years later, a dear family friend taught my brother and me that as those bright leaves gently floated down from the sky, we were to catch an even dozen – one for each month of the year – for good luck. We spent hours outside, faces upward and hands outstretched chasing the drifting leaves, trying to make sure the next year would be good to us. It’s a tradition I carried on with my own children when they were young. It’s harder than it sounds!
My town is riddled with walking trails and ravines, making for beautiful vistas at any time of year, and fall is no exception. Every autumn, as I walk or drive over some of our many bridges, I crane my neck to look up and down the creeks trying to determine when we’re at the height of colour. Some years I catch it, some years I’m fortunate enough to capture it on film, and some years I miss it, as it can pass in the blink of an eye, depending on Mother Nature’s temperament.
I’m clearly not the only Ontarian who is enthralled by the fall display of colour. Ontario Parks maps out the the percentage colour change at their locations to help those looking for their colour fix. According to their site, we still have a little way to go in my area. So I’ll be out this weekend, camera in hand trying to capture the yellows, bronzes, oranges and reds – our stationary fireworks of fall.
