Scenes of Vermont Forums

I was walking after work one summer’s eve last week and came upon a tiny, red maple leaf on the sidewalk in front of me. Most likely, it had drifted there from some stressed tree in my neighborhood. I stopped and picked up this tiny red leaf that was just staring at me ever so boldly from the barren sidewalk. I know Mother Nature had put it there for me on purpose! (She’s such a tease). I couldn’t help but smile you know, she’s done that before!

So, how can such a small piece of nature evoke so many vivid images for me? Cupping this leaf in my hands, I reminisced of jumping in piles of leaves with my siblings growing up in rural Connecticut. Oh how I miss those days. I remembered the family hay rides, picking apples in our local orchard and rambling through pumpkin patches. I miss watching my Dad rake leaves into the woods behind our house. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe in any possible hint of that musky smell of autumn but alas, there was nothing.

What did come to mind were fields of corn stalks, azure blue autumn skies, cool nights with soft breezes, sparkling, crystal clear fall days and geese honking overhead. Mums, gourds, warm sweaters and sweatshirts, ag fairs with oxen and draft horse pulls, candied apples, cider donuts and fritters, and of course, my annual trek to Vermont for foliage season that is soon to begin. My heart fluttered for a moment.

Oh, this single red maple leaf - a simple connection between me and my inescapable love affair with fall. I gently left that tiny red leaf hidden in the grass so as not to be stepped upon. I looked behind me and it seemed to be watching me as I continued on my way. I swear it winked at me! So I smiled back. My dear, dear harbinger of things to come.

There are quite a few of "those leafs" already blowing around the Kingdom!

Dearest CT, You speak to my very soul! I have loved Autumn from my very earliest memories. Perhaps it started because I have a Nov. birthday, or because it ment back to school, Halloween, and the coming Holidays, but it is deeply embedded. Some people have a hard time understanding just how it deeply it fills me, the smells, the tastes and deeply hued colors of autumn. I have fond memories of going to the apple orchards as a teenager with our church youth group. We would arrive just before sun up and watch the mist burn off with the coming daylight. The smell of the orchard was intoxicating. We would laugh and pick apples till noon, have water fights in the irrigation ditch and throw rotten apples at each other, then be take into the barn for lunch and fresh pressed cider. When we took our first trip to Vermont in 97, I was hooked, being surround by everything I loved 24/7. It was everything I ever dreamed of. A special place that let me take a step back in time. Alot of things have changed since that first trip but I guess progress in inevitable even in Vermont. But the best things have stayed the same, the wonderful people we meet and the glorious foliage. Here's to that little red maple leaf and many more to come!

Dear Janice: thank you for your very sweet reply! I loved your description of the apple orchard and the irrigation ditch and the rotten apple fights! I imagine your youth was just as enriched as mine was; those memories are so special and they will always be with us!

Cheers! And here's to the little red maple leaf!

Sometimes I wish it could be autumn forever. I love the sound of the leaves under my feet and kicking them up as they fly around me like colorful snow flakes. I also remember making big piles in my front yard and jumping in them and riding my bike through them. I love the temperature most of all. It's perfect when the sun is shining and it's comfortably cool where a sweater is all you need. It's such a great season and yet it seems so short.