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Nature's Palette is New Hampshire

© Christina Coruth

Peepers herald in two of New Hampshire's best seasons. You know it's Spring when the peepers, otherwise known as tree frogs, fill the night air with their calls. Autumn is also heralded in by the sounds of peepers, leaf peepers, whose "oohs" and "ahs" resonate across the state as they spy panoramas touched by nature's palette of orange, red, and gold.

Leaf peepers come from all over the world to enjoy New Hampshire's spectacular foliage. Anyone can be a leaf peeper. We Granite Staters are leaf peepers, too. Leaf peepers are easy to spot, regardless of whether they are tourist or home grown. They travel at least twenty miles under the speed limit, and sometimes, it appears that no one in the car is looking at the road because are all looking at the trees. Travel through the White Mountains, and you are likely to see a special kind of leaf peeper. A driver, hunched over the wheel, with his or her head cocked to the side looking up at the forested mountains decked out in their autumn finery.

It's that time of year, when people with someplace to go, really should plan for extra time to reach their destination because there are so many people on the roads who have no place to go. It's the going, not the arrival they are interested in. Some drivers are a little impatient. I think, though, that most are not. After all, most have been leaf peepers at one time or another. Most are leaf peepers now.

With the changing of the leaves, there is a change in the whole flavor of life in New Hampshire. Children have gone back to school. The din of people splashing in pools has given way to the cheers of the crowds at soccer and football games. Most days are still warm, but the smokey aroma of a woodstove started in order to take the chill out of the night air portends the near future. Those hazy summer skies will soon become the bright blue skies of October. Tans are fading to be replaced with the healthy glow of ruddy cheeks. Apple picking and hayrides have replaced summer gardening and body surfing. It's time to pay attention to the warning of the first hard frost. Harvest festivals, pumpkins, hot apple pie baked with cinnamon, and the cool, crisp air are Autumn.

All too soon, the beautiful foliage of autumn will become the contents of leaf piles, just right for kids to jump into. The glorious colorful countryside will fade into that gray nether world which enslaves the landscape until the first snow.

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