It’s that wonderful time of year when the leaves turn from their summer green to shades of gold, red, yellow, orange and everything in-between. The colors are especially beautiful in Vermont and New Hampshire at this time of year, when the roads become gridlocked with Leaf Peepers. Like me, those who travel from far away to view the spectacular show of color get the chills at first seeing them and can’t stop pointing out the magnificence that surrounds them as they fly into or drive through the Green Mountains.

Here in Virginia we do have an array of fall colors but not the stunning Crayola colors that we see when going to northern climes. Still it’s lovely and amazing to watch. One of my favorite things to do is to walk slowly on a windy day as the leaves drift all around me. I love the crunch underfoot and the storm of falling foliage overhead, just as much as I love walking through the first snowfall of the season, when my breath steams away and the building layers of snow on the ground quiets the sound of the passing world.

Bill and I both love trees and have always used them to welcome in new babies. After Mark was born in Vermont on a fifty-below-zero night in February, 1967, we planted a tiny weeping willow the following spring to honor him. Three years later when Lisa joined us, we planted another near the first one. We also honored our granddaughter Zoe, with a willow on her first birthday. And three years later when Noah, arrived from Guatemala as a one-year-old, we planted a red bud to honor him.

I’ve just finished reading, The Hidden Life of TREES, What They feel, How They Communicate, Discoveries from a Secret World, by Peter Wohlleben. If like me, you are a nature lover, have been mystified by the life of trees and plants in general, and weep whenever land is cleared of trees for more buildings, here is the story of how these marvels of nature live there lives through hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. They communicate with each other, as they nurture their children and friends through an underground mycelial network of underground fungal species. It’s a marvelous read.

It seems we humans treat our tree and plant friends as badly as we treat our animal friends. It’s time to learn about them and come to their aid. You won’t be disappointed in what you learn in the marvelous book.

Are you a tree hugger?  I am.