Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, or Lake Chargoggaggoggmancogmanhoggagogg (and other various spellings) is also known as Webster Lake, which is what I call it. It’s quite a big lake. Surrounded by trees, many of them maple, it can be spectacular in the fall.

For the non-New Englanders, maple trees are the ones that produce the brilliant red, gold, and orange leaves. Oak leaves turn a soft yellow, most other trees turn, at best, light red. We have fewer maple trees than we used to, probably because the oak trees have taken over the woodlands, blocking the sunlight and stunting the growth of smaller trees. For once, it’s nothing man has done: it’s just nature doing its own thing.

So, wherever you can find maple trees, especially near a body of water, that’s where you find the brilliant autumn leaves for which New England is famous. Now that August is nearing its end, all of us are hoping for a good autumn. It’s not just the color, it’s also that the fall is usually the nicest weather of the year and with a little luck, can stretch for as long as two months, more or less. The last two years have been washouts: too much rain at the wrong time took the leaves down before they reached full color.

Late afternoon in October.

Maybe this year? It sounds like I’m talking about the Red Sox. I know that they aren’t going to give us a beautiful Autumn, so I can but hope that the leaves will do the job. Autumn is our reward for surviving New England‘s other seasons. We deserve a beautiful season full of crisp weather and bright leaves.

Sunlight through bright maple leaves by the lake’s shore.

Here’s to a fine years for the leaves. From the shores of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I bring you gleaming waters and brilliant scarlet maple trees with the sun shining through.

Categories: #Photography, Nature, Seasons

Tags: autumn, fall, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, Lake Chaubunagungamaug, leafing, leaves, Maple, maple tree, New England, Oak, October, Red Sox, Tree, Webster Lake