Nature's Last Green Is Gold, Too

On May 22, I posted a blog entry about one of my favorite poems, Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay." The first line is, "Nature's first green is gold," so I illustrated it with the brand-new yellow-green leaves of a locust tree in my neighborhood. Today as I was walking, I noticed that the locust trees are back to the same color again.

Sugar maples display the most glorious hues of all in autumn--sometimes every shade between clear gold and flaming red on one tree. I've been reading that, with the climate changes due to global warming, sugar maples might not be able to survive too many years longer in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Leaf peepers will have to go way up to the northernmost parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to see the full palette New England has always been famous for.

If that happens, we'll have to content ourselves with lots of autumn leaves that look like the ones in this photo. Sorry, Robert. It seems that from now on, only gold can stay.