Don't Miss the Autumn Color This Year

Here is a suggestion for the faint of spirit, the downcast and downtrodden; an elixir for the noise in your brain and incessant vibration of the urbansphere.  When the ginkgo tree is wearing the full yellow of autumn, go and stand next to her skirt of leaves in the late afternoon sun and discover (perhaps for the first time) what light is.  Likewise, if you walk inside a Japanese maple on just the right day with the sun shining down from a blue sky you will understand what red is.  You will see it so clearly you will feel it and taste it and hear it.  

How else can I describe the colors of autumn?  

If I tell you how the tree responds to the longer nights of fall (it is the darkness they respond to, not daylight, as many assume) by ceasing with chlorophyll production, the stuff that makes leaves green, and if I explain how this lack of green simply unmasks the otherwise hidden yellow pigments (xanthophylls), orange pigments (carotenoids), and reds and purples (anthocyanins), would that paint such a vivid portrait?   Would that make you see?  Could you really understand it?  To understand it, you have to see it and walk around inside of it. 

This is why we go, indeed, we must go, on long drives through the countryside or to the mountains - to see the unmasking of fall.  It is, in a word, glorious.  

There are several wonderful websites for you to research fall color changes as well as great places to visit and best times to visit.  For instance, if you enjoy the mountains of North Carolina, here is a great map of the color changes there.  If you prefer a drive through the north Georgia mountains into our own Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, then here is a great site for your reference.  If you want to do more than see, you really want to understand the science behind fall color, then by all means refer to the United States National Arboretum.

However, there's no need to ignore what exists all around us.  Since I live in metropolitan Atlanta, specifically Alpharetta, I can name several places where you can experience the color, like I was trying to explain above, but without going very far.  Try to visit these places in mid to late October or early November. 

One of the best collections of ginkgo trees must surely be the front lawn at Callanwolde, on Briarcliff Road in Atlanta.  Callanwolde is the historic home of Howard Candler, whose father, Asa, founded the Coca Cola Company.  To experience pure, golden sunlight, visit the ginkgo's of Callanwolde.  

In downtown Alpharetta there exists a glorious specimen of ginkgo and that is at the Lewis home on Canton Street, near the library.  Don't miss it when it's fully yellow. 

Speaking of the , you must go there to see the vibrantly red Japanese maple out front near the entrance.  A similarly colored and beautifully formed Japanese maple can be seen on Freemanville Road in the front yard of a private residence, about 3/10's of a mile past the entrance to and right before the bend in the road.  

For a view of sugar maple's in all their glory, visit or drive past the Brooke Street Park on Academy Street and take a peek into the landscape.  There are two beautiful and relatively mature sugar maple's at this site.  There is also a line of about 3 or 4 sugar maples on Mid-Broadwell between the two Charlotte's at what used to be the Rucker homestead.  They've been chopped up by the utility company but nevertheless, continue to amaze and delight me every October.  

Don't underestimate the black-gum tree (Nyssa sylvatica) for its depth of red color in the fall.  There are many fine examples of this tree throughout the metro area, but a fine specimen exists in the passive play area at in Alpharetta. 

Autumn is the season of fullness and maturity and of tipping towards nightfall, but before the light fades it makes sure that we see all the color's it ever held within that single, solitary leaf.  This is our metaphor for life.