The Most Beautiful Fall Color in the World | New England’s Gifts
The slow fire spreads from the blazing maples to the gold of the birches on our high slopes. The threat of winter is not yet upon the land, but rather a sense of awakening from the sultry bondage of summer—and the Red Gods call. The smell of burning leaves in the still dusk, the bells […]
By Yankee Magazine|Oct 24 2015|
A misty fall sunrise amid brilliant autumn color in Peacham, Vermont. This is one of a series of images that photographer Richard Brown took when he first moved to Peacham 44 years ago. “As a fledgling professional photographer, I loved moments like these,” he says, “and felt very lucky to find them almost at my doorstep.”
Photo Credit: Richard BrownPhoto Credit : Richard Brown
The slow fire spreads from the blazing maples to the gold of the birches on our high slopes. The threat of winter is not yet upon the land, but rather a sense of awakening from the sultry bondage of summer—and the Red Gods call. The smell of burning leaves in the still dusk, the bells of night-wandering cattle, brittle limbs on enormous moons, mists aglow in the valleys—these and a hundred such will always be New England October. And to them even the dullest heart must make some answer.
—“October,” by Ben Rice, October 1945
The beauty of a New England fall is like magic. It slowly appears and creeps across the landscape and suddenly, you wonder, ‘how did that happen? and when?’ It is dazzling in its enormity, almost too large to get one’s mind around. The real secret to the colors being so extraordinary is the variety of color mixed together to blend into a perfect symmetry. The aspens of Colorado are a beautiful gold, the maples on my street in NY are a pretty yellow, but without the addition of red, orange, burgundy, the sight is pretty, but doesn’t dazzle. New England colors are by far way ahead of any other region and deserve the first prize in fall’s beauty contest.