"At last the truth dawns on us: autumn is stealing into town....Soon the leaves will start cringing and roll up in clenched fists before they actually fall off....But first there will be weeks of hypnotic colors so sensuous, shrieking, and confetti-like that people will travel for many miles just to stare at them -- a whole season of jeweled leaves."

--Diane Ackerman, Cultivating Delight