There’s a big maple tree shining in late morning sun on Green Bay Road.
It’s so colorful you think for a moment that it doesn’t jive with the prevailing mood of our times.
You know: the COVID thing, the mask thing, distancing and those other things. You push all that stuff aside and just stop to stare at this insistent beauty, an amazing autumn sight.
The colors are from the red, orange, and yellow families. And there’s no skimping on the intensity level. They’re simply showing off.
They’d have been garish anyway, but on this day, they’re lit up fully, by a dazzling bright yellow sun in a deep blue sky.
You’ve gotta stop the car. Snap a shot with your smart phone. The tiny photo surely won’t do the scene justice, but you grab it anyway.
Then you just take a long moment to look.
MIKE LUBOW ILLUSTRATION BY KIRSTEN ULVE
If the routines of our daily lives have been messed up a bit recently, nobody told this maple tree. It glows. It looks … happy. And it makes you feel that way. A nice moment.
This column was adapted by Mike Lubow from his book: Wild Notes: Observations over time about birds and other fleeting things. Available on amazon.com.
