Photo of the Day: Carpet of Leaves, Pondside Park, Harrington Park, NJ

What a difference seven weeks can make! In the first week of autumn, I posted this photo I took of Pondside Park, several miles north of me in Bergen County, NJ. Even as late as earlier in the week, temperatures soared into the 70s around here.

But this weekend, as in so many parks around me—and even in my own backyard—the shift to fall is complete. It came through three days of rain that lowered the temperatures and set leaves hurtling to the ground in droves.

With a day of sunlight that was cooler, but not yet fragile, it was no time to stay inside.

Photo of the Day: Autumn in Earnest: Petruska Park, Paramus NJ

It seemed that that only two weeks ago, fall was taking its time getting here in the Northeast. But these days, turn around and the seasons change suddenly.

And so it was this past weekend that I became fully aware that autumn had arrived. The realization came full force this past Sunday while I was walking around Michael Petruska Jr. Memorial Park in Paramus, several miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ.

I came upon this stretch of green by accident, while trying to get somewhere else. Farview Avenue, where it is located, would, in many other communities, seem quite busy.

But in the borough of Paramus, with a well-earned reputation as the mall capital of the United States, this stretch of green feels like an island of stillness and serenity, a far remove from traffic-clogged Routes 4 and 17. For me, a Bergen County resident for virtually my whole life, it was a delight to come upon something I had never encountered before.

In 1958, North Jersey-based developer Michael J. Petruska Sr. deeded 12 acres to Paramus with the only condition being that the land be named for his son, who had died in a tragic plane crash. In the mid-Sixties, the park came to fruition when borough volunteers responded to a nationwide beautification contest sponsored by Lady Bird Johnson through a 24-hour “plant-a-thon” on the property.

When I came to the park in mid-afternoon, the skies were overcast, with temperatures having fallen to a high of 52 degrees Fahrenheit—a more than 20-degree drop from the prior day. Jackets, sweatshirts and hoodies had become a requirement overnight.

On the courts, two teams were playing on the basketball court and two guys were wielding hockey sticks—though, by this point in the year, the baseball field was empty. On the nearby path circling the park, several parents were out with their children. Social distancing was easier to maintain with the mercury having dropped.

As I circled the park I took many pictures, but I was especially drawn to this scene. Though a good many orange, yellow and red leaves stayed in place, others had meekly surrendered, leaving their trees bare.

I imagine, after several more days of rain, wind and further temperature drops, that Indian summer has now beaten a full-fledged retreat. These days more than ever, when I relish the chance to walk around, autumn has never seemed so beautiful and brief.

Photo of the Day: Early-Evening, Late-Year Radiance

In the past few weeks, I’ve been struck by the sight of a tree on Van Brunt Street, just off the major commercial street in my hometown of Englewood, NJ—and, specifically, how the tree not only has kept its leaves so late in the year, but how the leaves appear in the light. They lend something bright and special to nights even as we slip in earnest into winter, convincing me that light exists even in deep darkness.

Not a bad thought to end the year. May each of you reading this find your own radiance in 2019!

Photo of the Day: The Remains of the Fall

The seasons don’t represent the same thing to me now that they did when I was a kid. Back then, winter meant sleigh rides down the hill across the street from my house, and maybe even time off from school. Now, it means bone-chilling temperatures that could bring on bronchitis or pneumonia; cars that must be driven ultra-carefully lest they skid; slips on ice that could break bones; or massive amounts of snow that need to be shoveled.

Similarly, once I associated fall playing football with friends, marveling at the changing colors of the season, or running and diving into piles of leaves. Now, though, fall comes late and, through one windy rainstorm after another, the foliage has hardly been transformed before it’s come down—and all those leaves have to be raked and put out for collection before they’re buried under snow.

Last weekend, as you’ll see in this photo I took, I raked nine bags of leaves on my property, for a grand total of 21 bags this season. I take no joy in this task. Whatever meager consolation I derive comes from the exercise it necessitates—the kind of energetic, if not free, movements in which I engaged in the early seasons of my life.

Quote of the Day (Edith Shiffert, on Leaves of Summer)

“Since winter ended for this tree, new leaves

Filled all the branches, grew, could not restrain

Themselves from coming. They will wilt and drop,

Be nothing, but for summer they show green.” —American poet Edith Shiffert (1916-2017), “The Summer Tree,” Christian Science Monitor, 1968, quoted in Margolit Fox, “Edith Shiffert, 101, a Poet Inspired by Japan,” The New York Times, June 15, 2017

I took this photo three years ago in Central Park, in the East 80s.

Photo of the Day: Blossom-Covered Ground, Ringwood Manor, NJ

It wasn’t even the height of spring yet, but on Sunday at Ringwood Manor in New Jersey, so many cherry-blossom petals had fallen that there was an entire stretch of ground, as seen in this photo I took, where you could not walk a half inch without stepping on one.

Photo of the Day: Leaf Carpet, Roosevelt Common, Tenafly NJ

I took the image accompanying this post this past weekend at the 10-acre Roosevelt Common, a couple of miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ.