Tri-Color Trees

When I was a kid, the end of Summer was a bummer, but Fall still had a few things going for it.

With the start of school came brand-new notebooks (which I still obsess over) and shiny new shoes. The promise of winter. Which meant Christmas wasn't far behind! And snow days that sometimes closed school. Woo-hoo!

Now Fall means raking gobs and gobs of leaves (we have some extremely tall maple and oak trees), colder temperatures. And with the impending winter, the occasional snow day, but instead of joy these can bring stress if we have to still trek to work, if we have to find a way to get home in the crush of traffic. Or most productive of all, work from home and figure out later how to chip out the car from its encasement of ice.

During long country drives on sunny Fall days, however, the trees in their golden, red and bright yellow hues are nature's mood elevators. Among my favorite rides are those where the trees form a colorful archway beckoning me to zoom right through. Change is good.

We just spent the weekend driving up and down the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, one of the most scenic roads in the country. More on that later.

For now, a shot of trees from another outdoor jaunt that jolted me into appreciating Fall yet again.