September 28

Saturday was a good day at Forest Hill for a hike with my dog, Remi. The early morning weather was foggy with a temperature of 55 degrees and a breeze out of the south. Today, I planned to pay attention to Mother Nature’s colors. Those she uses to decorate her early autumn landscape. At the crest of the hill, I gazed through the fog to see the color of the western vista was slowly changing from the dominate summer green. I spotted the color red in several places including the Silver Maple leaves at the entrance to North Woods. Red, Virginia creeper leaves were easy to spot where its vine climbed up a dogwood shrub on the west side of Succession Field. Next to the trail between Frog Fen and Brady Cemetery, it was easy to spot the red branches of a Red Osier Dogwood shrub. Also, I enjoyed seeing the contrasting red berries of a Winterberry shrub on the edge of Swanson Swamp and a Climbing Nightshade vine on the east side of Grebe Pond. Neither berry is edible. The ripe, red crab apples from a small tree on the east side of Reflection Hill caught my eye as well. The color orange was seen in a Sugar Maple leaf on the trail in North Woods and in a few leaves from an Autumn Olive shrub in Succession Field. The color yellow was evident in several places including the leaves of a dying Milkweed next to Mallard Marsh and a dying Indian hemp plant near Willow Wallow. Yellow was seen in one of a few Goldenrod plants still blossoming in Bobolink Meadow and a patch of Jerusalem artichoke flowers east of the barn. Not surprising, the color green was still wide spread as I paused to notice a green canopy of trees above my head in North woods while listening to a flock of noisy geese flying low. Looking more closely, I noticed the leaves of an American Beech tree still remained a deep green. Also, a lush green color was seen in the bunch galls topping some Goldenrods plants in Succession Field. The color blue was found in the Wild Grapes hanging from a vine in a White Pine Tree near Brady Cemetery as well as a few Chicory blossoms nearby. The color purple was displayed in the New England Aster flowers near Willow Wallow, the Bluestem prairie grass in Native Grassland and the leaves of a Blue Vervain plant next to Mallard Marsh. Pleased at the rainbow of colors seen on the hike, I arrived back at the black car with the white dog for our journey home.

Nature’s autumn palette
Found in forest and field
Waning green of summer
Rainbow of colors revealed
Red appears in maple leaves
Some are orange as well
Goldenrod shows its yellow
Blue Chicory is easy to tell
Finally the Asters arrive
Purple blossoms to show
September’s last hurrah
Beauty above and below

D. DeGraaf