When Red and Orange Are Gone

The sumac and maple have had their day by the first of November, and it's time for a quieter autumn palette. As days grow shorter and colder, the warmth of toasty, golden browns on branches and on the ground below is welcome, gladdening the eye in all kinds of weather. Soon only occasional pale and tattered leaves will cling to stripling beech, and clusters of darker brown oak leaves will be much fewer, as well, as we enter the black-and-white season of Up North winter.