Peeps

Went for the annual leaf peeping trip this weekend. Given my teaching schedule this semester, I can't swing an Adirondacks stay so we made do with the northern Catskills. Far enough north, it turned out, to be well "past peak" according to the 

New York Foliage Map. The maples, with a few luminous exceptions, were already a memory, a red shag carpet beneath clear blue punctured by wintry greys. But bright bands of oaks proved virtuosic in radiant yellows, browns, reds and and even deep purples, while beeches glowed green and gold and hemlock shimmered almost bluish green. The drive up offered the comically compressed fall we're accustomed to, the drive back the Cassandra-like return to carefree red and heedless green.