My wife and I arrived at Boston airport, via London, on the 27th September, unfortunately the luggage took a different route and arrived at our hotel two days later.
The trip was to experience "New England in the Fall" - having heard about the autumn colours, the time was right to go and see them. The journey was through all six States of New England as the route took us from Boston (MA) -> Bar Harbor (MN) -> White Mountains (NH) -> Green Mountains (VT) -> Enfield (CT) -> Newport (RI) -> Hyannis (MA).
Like the UK, autumn was running late in the area so the foliage hadn't "peaked". In fact it wasn't until the journey from Bar Harbor to the White Mountains that there was any real indication that autumn was there at all, so it was wonderful to see the multicoloured scenery on either side of Route 2 on the drive to New Hampshire.
The first stop in NH was at the summit of Mt Washington (6288 ft) after the 8 mile drive up to it, and I mean UP - the rangers at the entrance to the auto route to the summit as good as ask for a health certificate for both car and driver. Mt Washington, site of the highest wind speed ever recorded (231 mph), is on the Appalachian Trail - a 2155 mile walk from Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia - if you want to read about it I recommend Bill Bryson's book "A walk in the woods" (Chapter 18 is the bit at Mt Washington).
The following picture shows coloured foliage at "Purity Lake", though not quite at its peak.
To understand why there is so much colour, you need to know about leaves. Each leaf contains chlorophyll, and it is this pigment that gives leaves their green colour. Because it is present in such high quantities other pigments in the leaves just pale into insignificance. The chlorophyll absorbs sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to produce the sugars and carbohydrates which are the food for the plants - this is the famed photosynthesis.
The steadily increasing hours of darkness that autumn brings signals to the tree that it is time to prepare for winter, which it does by forming a cell layer at the stem of each leaf which prevents moisture flow. This results in the chlorophyll not being renewed and allows the other colours (pigments) to be seen - carotenes produce yellow/orange colours, antocyanin causes the reds of maples, and tannins are responsible for the brown colours associated with oaks.
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New England is one of
the few places that has a large variety of broad-leaved deciduous trees (ones that lose their leaves each
year - from the Latin decidere meaning to fall off).
Couple that with the climate and topography of somewhere like New Hampshire and the result is spectacular scenery and colour. |
Although the fall colours are very impressive, New England has other things to offer, too. When we'd had our fill of autumn colours - there is a limit to the number of flaming red maples I am willing to expose myself to - we continued on south to the Connecticut River Valley and then on to Cape Cod.
| Cape Cod is a long narrow stretch of land at the SE
corner of Massachusetts which is now a 40 mile long national park, and
contains a number of sites important to the history of this area.
In 1903, the newly built Marconi Wireless Station made the first transatlantic radio transmission between President Roosevelt and King Edward VII. The station operated until 1917 but only scattered remnants now remain of the original structure. It is believed that in 1620 the Mayflower Pilgrims first landed at Cape Cod - the women did the washing while the men explored the region for fresh water and food - before going on to Plymouth across Cape Cod Bay. |
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The above photograph shows "Highway Light", which is just one of the five picturesque lighthouses within Cape Cod National Seashore, and one of the many scattered around the coast of New England. The wooden clapboard building is typical of the region - indeed, with its barns, covered bridges and colonial houses, New England is just one enormous picture post card.
Postscript: Whilst the foliage of New England is particularly impressive, the autumn colours of the UK are still quite something to see, though not in the same quantity and variation. Take time to look around at what nature has to offer.