Bracken color Bell Cedar

It's still officially summer, and it still officially feels like it—during the day, at least, with temperatures in the 80s. But it's been chilly at night—low 50s—and that hint of autumn is quickly translating into the first changing of the foliage-color guards. These Bracken Fern fronds have been directed by the declines in the length of the days to quit manufacturing the green pigment chlorophyll, and with the green starting to disappear, the so-called accessory pigments—molecules that have been toiling in obscurity, since chlorophyll masks them—are starting to make their presences known. Right now, the Great Unmasking is taking place largely at ground level, but by the end of the month, the trees will be getting into the act. The geese will start Vee-ing up. The first smell of wood smoke will be in the air. And wherever rural folk gather, at least one topic of conversation will center on speculation about what kind of leaf-peeping season we'll have. We shall see.