Autumn Abstract

Perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, my father, Dudley, now 82, planted a twig taken from a Japanese maple tree growing in our backyard in the space on our patio an old dogwood occupied before it died of tree blight. Alas, the sapling is now a robust, 25-foot tall tree that provides the patio with shade all summer and then throws countless crimson leaves onto my parents’ patio each October, creating a dazzling mozaic of color when mixed with the leaves from nearby oaks, beeches, and tulipoplars that I’ve tried to capture here, along with a glimpse of the trunk of the little tree responsible for it all.