A Kaleidoscope of Autumn Color

Our string of cloudless, blue-sky days came to an end on Friday, bringing welcome rain to a thirsty earth and overcast skies that continued on through Saturday.  Those pearl-gray skies cast an even, shadowless light across the autumn landscape, a light in which the colors of changing leaves and grasses and ferns and flowers glowed even more richly than on bright sunlit days.

As I walked a high and curvaceous powerline trail above the Hudson River at Moreau today, I marveled at how, with every turn of the trail and climb of a hill, the magnificent colors were rearranged in ever-changing arrays of green and gold and ruby and amethyst, as radiant and wondrous as the patterns formed by chips of jewel-like glass in a kaleidoscope.

The fruit-bearing trees and shrubs and vines are heavy with fruit this fall, as evidenced by this Hawthorn tree burgeoning with berries, its boughs also weighted with climbing grapes.

I even found a tree with ruby-red apples growing wild!  A deer trail worn through shoulder-high grass led me right to the tree with its windfall bounty littering the grass beneath and filling the air with the fragrance of ripe fruit.

I love the color combination of dark-blue berries and crimson leaves on Virginia Creeper vines.

These Cladonia lichens, too, seemed extra bright, the fruiting bodies glowing a deep, rich red against the gray-green thallus.

Brilliant color everywhere!  Even underfoot!

The high trail along the mountain ridge eventually descended to the river, where I lingered to take in the beauty of the reflections.

Purple-stemmed Asters continue to bless the roadsides with their beauty as well as some rather sleepy Bumble Bees with flowers still heavy with pollen.