This is the weekend...

I notice from reading the weblog for our Mariton Wildlife Sanctuary (also on the Natural Lands Trust website) that we must be slightly advanced in our fall color season relative to theirs. I'm not sure exactly why; that preserve, located on the border of Bucks and Northampton Counties, is higher in latitude but perhaps lower in altitude? Preserve Manager Tim Burris' post for this morning says the tupelos and ashes are at peak color there. Our tupelos, as noted earlier, dropped their leaves last week, and without noticing the actual event, I now see our ash trees are also bare. But lots of others are taking their turn. In this photo the red maples in the swamp are really bright. The large green and yellow trees in the middle of the photo, slightly uphill from the maples, are beech. There's also sugar maple, hickory, red oak, and tupelo in these woods. This is the weekend to get out and enjoy fall color. I'm convinced fall color is meant to distract us from the imminent monochrome days of winter.