Foliage show: Leaves hanging tough
Show is over up north, but around here it should survive the clock change.
We are about to enter the vestibule of the season to come, and for our money, aesthetically those early November days constitute one of the most-underrated periods of the year.
But despite the imminent pre-winter chill and the turning-back of the clocks, autumn evidently still has plenty of life left in the Philadelphia region.
In what it rather sadly calls its "final" weekly update -- and we say "sadly" because we think the leaf report is one of the best things we've seen come out of Harrisburg -- the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry says the show is more or less all over north and west of the Lehigh Valley.
However, it notes that plenty of color has survived in southeastern Pennsylvania, and those imported Norway Maples so common in developed areas still have plenty of green on them.
Heavy rake warnings are in effect, however, as the winds are due to pick up during the weekend, temperatures flirt with freezing on Monday morning, and the sun starts setting at the peak of the homeward commute.
On the plus side, this is one of our favorite weekends of the year, with a 25-hour Sunday and fresh -- albeit short-lived -- resolve to start our days earlier.
The clock change is one sure sign that it won't be long before the deciduous trees are bare, standing out against the sky like so many nerve endings, all the better to let in more light and show off their architecture.