Lament of the Color Junkie…

We have had a lousy fall.  Record breaking January snowfalls, a long dry stretch, followed by a long wet stretch, followed by June tornadoes and a visit from Hurricane Irene conspired to make sure of that.  Our reds just didn’t show up.  In the almost 30 years since I’ve lived in central Massachusetts, I can never remember such a dull autumn. 

I feel sorry for the leaf-peepers and the color junkies who so look forward to this time of year.  I feel sorry for myself.  The swamp maples and sumac, which usually give our autumn its snap, gave up the ghost early and were just not present except in small bits.  The majority of the red this year was from the Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) that is not even a native of New England.  It was a disappointment to say the least.

But the golds, yellows and coppers managed to brighten things a bit, so I still got my camera out and took my autumn pictures.  I will post a few of them today.  I suppose you will wonder what I am complaining about because the colors in my pics look pretty darn festive, but, believe me, this year was not up to par.

We humans want what we want.  We often take without giving back.  We build and change things without thought of consequences down the road of time.  That’s the way it is.  I am not sure if this “freak” weather year of ours was just a one-time thing or a snapshot of a longer trend that is truly frightening.  But I sit here before you today, one very disappointed color junkie.