civilized ku # 124-25 ~ fall foliage forever

Looking left and right on City Line Ave. ~ Philadelphia, PA. • click to embiggenOne of the "features" of our recent travels has been that of following the fall foliage. We lost most of our leaves about a month ago although even around here, depending upon elevation, there is a transitional factor at work - higher elevations lose leaves first, lower elevations last.

3 weekends ago, the trees were in fine color 75 miles south of us during our day-trip to Saratoga Springs. 2 weekends ago in Montreal there was still a healthy amount of fall foliage still in evidence. Even though Montreal is north of us, it's much more temperate - not only at a lower elevation but it also has the tempering effect of the St. Lawrence River.

This past weekend in Philadelphia, most trees were sporting quite a display of color and, as I was picturing some of it, I came to the realization that in many ways I like fall foliage in city environs at least as much if not more so than I do in the mountains of the Adirondacks. In fact, it is rather amazing how much trees (at any time of the year) in a city transform the urban landscape.

The unfortunate aspect of that equation is that trees are usually only found in neighborhoods that are higher up on the personal income scale. And make no mistake about, the City Line Ave. neighborhood pictured here is well into the upper income register. FYI, I found myself in this neighborhood while visiting coma girl in her student-housing apartment (Saint Joseph's University).

In any event, it's kinda weird having a rolling / extended fall foliage season as we travel about the NE region.