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.by Anura Guruge

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>> 1st red foliage of 2013 …

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I have to confess that I don’t normally take much notice of the foliage — kind of blasé about it having lived in heavily wooded parts of New Hampshire for the last 28 years.

But, seeing the hard-to-miss red foliage on August 5 I have been more on the lookout this year. Plus, we have been asked as Granite State Ambassadors (GSAs) to keep an eye on the fall foliage this year.

This morning (viz. Monday, August 19, 2013) I was running down Prospect Mountain Road (after having run up it), head down, thinking about all the book-related stuff I had to get done today, when something fluttered on my shoulder. I stopped to look. It was red maple leaf. Bright red/orange, and quite small. I then looked around. About a dozen such leaves on the ground. Looked up. Sure enough a patch of red/orange foliage in the trees. This 1/2 mile down from the first foliage I had spotted two weeks ago. So I picked up four leaves and brought them home.

Then, later on in the morning, while seated at my PC, I looked over to my right — through the window I sit next to. My office is on the 4th floor (i.e. attic) on this Colonial. So I am at treetop level. The tree directly across from me is changing color.

This, I know, is early. I asked my ‘buddy’ at the Alton Post Office. He is a native. He says it is early. Half and hour later we were at the Hannaford check-out in Alton when I heard the young checkout girl talking about how the foliage was early this year.

So it must be true. Fall foliage 2013, in NH, is early.

But, after what has been a chilly August (though I am forcing myself and Teischan to still go swimming in the lake, including today), we are going to get a 3-day HEAT WAVE. That will sure confuse the trees. They might start shedding earlier.

Yes, of course, I will keep an eye open and let you know. Stay tuned.