Spring Colors of New England

Story ID:	490
Written by:	Virginia Allain
Organization:	none
Story type:	Travel
Location:	New England USA
Year:	2006
Person:	Take a scenic tour

"New England Colors" brings to mind the brilliant hues of fall foliage. While it may not boost the showy reds and oranges of fall, spring in the northeast has its own color palette. The subtle shadings of green in the woods indicate the unfurling of new leaves in the spring.
Pine green, blue green, forest green, spring green, emerald green, olive, light green and grass green sound like a row of Crayola box colors. Actually the names are too limited for the range needed for a New England spring. They need to add "willow green" and "hemlock green". Even within certain trees the hue varies depending on many factors. The amount of sun, valley or hillside, and stage of leaf opening affect the color of green.
A drive through Connecticut, Massachussets, New Hampshire or Maine unfolds vistas of thick woods with rounded contours. Occasional firs, dark in their year-around-green, break through with sharp silhouettes. Additional variety comes from the reddish brown of laggard trees still in bud. The eye catches on the graceful ellipse of a curving, white birch trunk.
A creek meanders back into the forest depths. At times, the sparse leafiness of spring allows one to peer into forest glades unseen in summer. A few still-bare trees form a black tracery of branches against the light greens. The eye strains to spot a deer in the forest depths. Finally one is sighted casually munching greenery in the median as cars whiz by on both sides.
Tragically we spot another further on, still graceful looking, but dead. It lay in the breakdown lane, where its delicate legs extended in mimicry of a leap. The head faced the forest and its dainty hoof seemed poised as though to take one more step to safety. Too late, as its speed was no match for interstate speeds of the cars and trucks.
From the highway, one catches glimpses of villages. The groupings of white clapboard houses evoke Grandma Moses' paintings in your mind. It's late May and further south, the tulips and iris are finished. Here the yards show splashes of color from those spring flowers with purple lilac bushes providing strong accents.
Some colors extend to the unmown roadsides which allow graceful drifts and sprinklings of wildflowers to flourish. The patches of white, red and yellow delight the eye, as does the occasional white flowering tree on the mostly green hillsides. The flooding from the record spring rains is past and the lush grass spreads thickly carpeting the roadside.
Angular rock outcroppings jut from rounded hills adding colors from sand, rust, grays and ivory. In other spots the rocks are rounded and smoothed by centuries ago glaciers. Where road crews cut through, the rock walls are seamed and craggy.
Rust, green, ivory, spruce green, lilac... New England in the spring.
(photos of Maine by Tim Patterson of Missouri)