fjp451, that sounds so nice - I went to the Rhinebeck area last year it was my first time to the east coast. It was May and everything was So green. I am born and raised in California, and I've never seen such a verdant paradise. I looked all over for even one brown leaf, but I didn't seem to find one. I bet it's really spectacular now with the fall leaves turning. Wish I could afford another trip.

fanboy, yes it is great to have four real seasons! However......

The fourth arrives when the final trick or treater has knocked on the last door in the neighborhood, dragged his/her full bag home and fallen soundly asleep. Then, parents step onto porches and doorsteps, and all of the candles inside of now frost-covered, sad pumpkins are blown out. Midnight arrives, November 1st chills in, and this happens until around March:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/environmentdec/2006a/winterwarning30106.jpg
http://www.lynnbenevento.com/winter-birches-sm-new.jpg
http://thegpsandfishfinder.com/library/P1010160.JPG
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/3580024-md.jpg
http://www.prospectpt.com/LodgeGood.jpg
http://www.agpix.com/catalog/AGPix_PaRe12/large/AGPix_PaRe12_0717_Lg.jpg

How do we do it??? Two more...
http://store.nrm.org/prodimg/FIG1.jpg
http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/8622/images/snowman.jpg

You probably all know that it's the diminshing green chorophyll revealing those fall colours that were there all along.
While visiting in Pennsylvania I decided that it's the contrast of the dark bark of the maples against those colours that makes them so spectacular.

quote:

Originally posted by fanboy:
I remember Halloween as a kid in L.A., the night was always dry and windy and warmish, and the streets were full of kids trick or treating. So much fun. It really is an electric time of the year.

I think I need to watch The Halloween Tree this weekend ( animated special).

What part of L.A.? I was born in Flint, MI but grew up in Long Beach and Anaheim. My fiancee grew up in Echo Park. What a small world, eh?


I'm back in Flint now.

It is now officially October.

“October Country . . . that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and mid-nights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain. . . .”

― Ray Bradbury, The October Country

This year being the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, October is particularly special!