The Color of Autumn

When I chose the trees to be planted in front of the cafe, I chose sycamores.  I wanted to have a reminder forever, of the colors of Autumn from my "real" home in southern California.  My reality that I was now  "from Nevada" made me wistful and homesick for California, especially for Autumn on Camp Pendleton where I worked outside for several years.  But, I just don't know what the heck I was thinking!  Northern Nevada has some of the most beautiful trees in the world!  Despite being in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, Reno is lush and green with old growth trees.  My street has the elegant graceful canopy of a neighborhood that is over a hundred years old.  I wait all year for my driveway maples to turn...the bright scarlet only lasts for a week.

The trees on my street, besides my now-boring-Autumn-brown-sycamores, are ash and elm, maple, pine and oak.  All are varying shades of green through spring and summer, turning in a shy way, to bright, BRIGHT reds, oranges, yellows.  The highway up to the Donner Pass transforms from pine and wildflowers, to shocking stands of aspen that shimmer among the pine trees.  Staying hidden until Autumn, they are spun into the golden spotlight at this time of year in a show that takes my breath away---I can hardly take my eyes off of the forest as I drive along the freeway! 

Everything about Autumn here is a pleasure.    The Canada geese are making their noisy arrival---the air is crisp, the scent of roasting pumpkin seeds fills the air, people have started to wear scarves as they dash to get their errands done and hurry back to their warm houses.  The wind is bitter and blustery, the sky is heavy gray. Kids are accustomed again to a rigid school week---and praying for snow days, the trees are letting go of their glorious leaves, and the whole city is settling in for the coming dark season.