USVI-On-Line

Was up north of Boston this past Weds – Sat (even snuck over into Maine to hit Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery = yummo) and was amazed at the almost total lack of color.

That’s unusual for beginning of October, no? Nights haven’t been cold enough near the coast? Too much rain in Sept.?

Hasn't been a problem for those of us out here in the west. Maybe this will tide you over till your leaves change.


IMG_0042 by ross_mike40, on Flickr


IMG_0043 by ross_mike40, on Flickr


IMG_0046 by ross_mike40, on Flickr

All the trees color is late this year. I just spent a week in Colorado and New Mexico and the aspen were spectacular in Colorado and no color yet in New Mexico. I'm back in Michigan now and the color is just starting in our area but done in the UP.

I guess it's due to the late spring and wet summer.

It's beautiful here in western ny, lots of reds and golds and unusually warm weather make for some nice leaf peeping.

Our fall change is early this year. Combination of dry weather and 13yr cicada hatch.

I think the foliage is a little late this year. Hurricane Irene did a number on the trees on Cape Cod and most of the leaves on the coast were dead one day after the storm. All salt spray and wind with no rain will do that I guess. Ive been told the same thing happened after Hurricane Bob.

One of the Boston Globe's lead articles today was about the New England foliage this year and how it is disappointing due to a combination of too much rain and too much wind. People are doing "disaster touring" of Vermont instead, checking out all of the washed out roads etc. from Irene.

I personally noticed the leaves starting to change over the weekend--on the way out to Cape Cod on Friday, everything was green. Coming home yesterday, I saw rust, yellow, and some red. Not brilliant like some years, but pretty nonetheless.

In our area of PA, the leaves look nice but not spectacular yet. The top of the mountain ridges are starting to turn and I think we will get a nice show.

Yesterday we were in Baltimore and what surprised us is that leaves in southern PA and northern MD leaves look very colorful and more progressed than 100 miles north.

the temperatures determine when the leaves change and we've had a decently ward fall so far with only a few cold days mixed in. Oct 2004, the year I got married, there was very little color on our wedding day, the 16th! S'ok through cuz we won the world series shorlty thereafter!

toes in the sand wrote:Our fall change is early this year. Combination of dry weather and 13yr cicada hatch.

I can't remember when we didn't have cicadas. They are disgusting, big insects, that for me serve no purpose...ewwwww

Our leaves are starting to change now and probably within the next week will all be colorful.

Connie wrote:I can't remember when we didn't have cicadas. They are disgusting, big insects, that for me serve no purpose...ewwwww

Our leaves are starting to change now and probably within the next week will all be colorful.

We also have annual cicada nicknamed dog day cicada. They appear during the hot days of August. They have a green color. Their numbers are small in comparison and the noise from them are only as annoying as tree frogs. This year we had the 13 year and dog day cicada. The 13 year are smaller and have red eyes. Really large numbers and really really ugly. They slit small branches to lay their eggs. The branches are falling with the leaves this year. Once in a great while we get the 7 year, 13 year and dog day varieties and it is unbearable to stay outside with the noise.

Things are pretty weird around here [MD} leaf- wise. The locust trees used to lose their leaves by mid August, [they were always the first to lose them]. This year they are still green and on the trees. They lost a few in the last day or so, and I'm sure that they'll lose a bunch tonight as it's supposed to get pretty chilly. Also we have dozens of hummingbirds hanging around our feeders and they used to be gone by Labor Day, but they just left this week.As far as cicadas, this isn't our year for them, but there's no shortage of stinkbugs. Yuck! These buggers are destroying crops and gardens around here. I talked to a guy with a big orchard near here and he told me that they have come up with a spray that might save his apples but it's a very dangerous poison and it kills honeybees. Scary stuff.

We have stink bugs in PA too. I left my car windows open one weekend and they took up in my vents and AC system, I am still flushing them out.

We have a weekend cottage in the woods (deep woods) and our 88 year old neighbor says he feeds the hummingbirds until Sept 12. After that, they need to move south. He said years ago, they would go through 100+ pounds of sugar each summer feeding the hummingbirds.

We had a drenching downpour today and it brought down a lot of leaves.

Western NY reporting in...also starting to see the show beginning, Double bonus, headed to Grand Canyon, PA this weekend to enjoy that show. Will post some picture on Sunday.

Nasty bees here. They are stinging mad that the weather is changing.