Our Window on Nature

It’s hard to pick a favorite season. Spring with its blossoming wildflowers? Noisy summer with the song of crickets on a balmy night? Or winter, with its fellowship around the warmth of a fire? But autumn is a kaleidoscope, a last brilliant flash of color before the fallen leaves succumb to the smoky fingers of a bonfire.

Wherever we are, about mid-September we feel an annual urge to dash to New England to see autumn at its finest. Do you think it’s provincial snobbery when Vermonters boast about the Connecticut Valley in the fall? Then it’s certain that you haven’t been there, because New England’s autumn foliage is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. When you understand what makes the colors turn as they do, you’ll know why. (Read the rest …)

In a normal year, most areas record their lowest temperatures for the winter right about now. ‘Tis the season for below zero windchill factors - weather cold enough to make the mercury in your thermometer curl up and hibernate until spring. But somehow, in spite of the ice, the sleet, and the snow, most living things survive.

In the animal kingdom, creatures may head south before the first frost; others stick around but grow an extra heavy coat of fur. Plants have no choice but to stay. Most wait out the weather as seeds, or as roots and bulbs buried beneath the snow. But not trees. (Read the rest …)