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Fall in the Hudson Valley

Fall.  My favorite time of year.  The humidity has gone and left behind cool, crisp sunny days, and clear chilly nights, perfect for sleeping and snuggling.  Orchards are brimming with visitors, many from New York City buying up every pie or zucchini bread in sight.  Many come to take part in the apple-picking ceremony.  The thick branches of the apple trees are blossoming with clusters of the red globes and are gracefully drooping with the extra weight of the ripe juicy fruits.  They are bowing, almost as if they are offering themselves to the first *picker* who comes along, making it quite an easy task to snap them from their homes.  Children also excitedly search the rows and rows of big orange gourds with green leaves, looking for the perfect pumpkin.  Should it be small and plump, big and round or tall and oval?  Back at the farm-stand, you can sample the best of everything.  Everything Apple.  Apple Cider, Apple Pie, and my all time favorite, which I only treat myself to at this time of year…Apple Cider Donuts, which are homemade right before your eyes and dusted with cinnamon sugar and devoured immediately.  Have mercy.

Back home after the picked bushels are carted in, every kitchen in New England is filled with the fragrance of Fall.  Homemade applesauce, pies, crisps, crumbles and of course mulled cider are lovingly prepared during these Fall weekends. Those pumpkins now dot the porch steps of many suburban homes. Many mingle with colorful pots of button-topped mums and others have smiling or spooky faces carved, which are illuminated at night.  Those are the houses with small children. 

The triangular eyes glaring at you and the eerie jagged tooth smiles are reminders that Halloween is just around the corner.  For the little ones, the costumes are sewn or purchased, the children gather, the route is carefully planned, families stock up on candy, doorbells ring, "trick or treat" is shouted…and later candy is traded, deals are made, bellies are full.  For the older kids adults, Halloween means candy corn spilling out of bowls on the kitchen table, horror flicks, Haunted houses, scary haunted hayrides and corn mazes. 

But the best part of fall for me is the foliage.  I just love the change in colors of the leaves.  A brilliant tribute to Mother Natures talent.  I am lucky enough to live in an area where the spectacle never disappoints.  Since we are close to a river and have hills and valleys, it is a sight to behold.  The colors change from weekend to weekend until the trees are bare and the ground is covered.  Lemon, lime, amber, gold, peach, orange, ruby, burgundy are the colors I see.  Come, let me show you.  It’s the perfect day for a drive.

This is what I see from the bank of the Hudson River, just 2 minutes from my house in Poughkeepsie, the bridge is the Mid-Hudson Bridge.

The rusted bridge in the background is the Historic Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, no longer in use, but about to be restored for a use as a walking/biking path…

Further exploration uncovers the last of the season’s wild berries…

It’s time to cross, quick, a shot from the bridge, looking North…

Signs off the New York State Thruway at the New Paltz exit confuses tourists. Geesh, I am a local and I’d be confused too, wouldn’t you?  I wonder how many horns blow or fenders bend at this crossing…

My favorite trees are the graceful red maples…

Their leaves seem to shed, glide down and cover the grass, rolling out nature’s red carpet…

The railroad bridge extends into the next county.  Here is another view some 15 miles away…

Time to head home.  As we cross back over the bridge, the sun is starting to slip behind the mountains, casting more of an amber glow on the scene and drawing our weekend to a close.  This is the view to the South.

Wait for it, wait for it…here is the break in the railing..

Thanks for taking a Sunday drive with me.  Now it’s your turn.  What do you love about the Fall?  What is your favorite area in the Fall and what do you love to do in the cooler weather?  Apple picking, pumpkin carving, cooking hearty soups and stews, raking leaves?  What are your Fall favorites? 

Photos around the Hudson Valley by Christopher Lacey, someone had to drive.

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