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Beauty is Everywhere: Fall Colors 2026
It is still here. I took a drive today on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, one of the most beautiful highways in the US, and I enjoyed that drive immensely. A full display of all shades of yellow with red, orange, and light brown painted all over it.
Every year, these autumn colors are different in their intensity and timing, often affected by one’s mood, but we will leave mood out of it. This year we were blessed with a long, slow, and exuberant display. Thank you, Mother Nature!
As you might remember, this blog is about wine, food, and life. Today, we are not talking about wine or food. It is all about life in its full beauty.
These “Fall Colors” posts are very traditional on this blog. I love photography almost as much as I love wine, so I take every opportunity to inundate you with as many pictures as I possibly can, especially when it comes to the beautiful display of leaves. If you are curious, here you can find past fall colors posts: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2024.
Sometimes, I just walk around my neighbourhood. Sometimes, the colors come from short trips around New England, New York, and more. The 2026 display comes from the 2 trips we took: one in New York and one in Connecticut.
First, we went to a beautiful Chinese garden called Innisfree Garden, located about an hour and a half from Stamford, in the town of Millbrook. We visited the garden a few times in the past, I’m surprised that I never mentioned it on this blog.
Next, if you are in Millbrook, you must visit Wing’s Castle. I wrote about Wing’s Castle before in full detail, so I will not repeat it here, but hey, if you are anywhere near Millbrook, visiting Wing’s Castle is literally mandatory.
Last weekend, we went to the Sleeping Giant State Park in Connecticut, with an excellent hike and magnificent views, and then visited Gouveia Vineyards, but this will be the subject of its own post.
Now, without further ado, it is time for many, many pictures.
First, from our walk in Innisfree Gardens:
Now, the Wing’s Castle (just for fun, you can compare these pictures with the ones in the blog post I mentioned before):
And finishing up with the pictures from the Sleeping Giant State Park:
Hope you enjoyed the display of colors.
Mother Nature – thank you again!
Just Some Fall Colors
2023 was an interesting year – on many levels (personal and not). Until it turned upside down about a month ago.
Wine is generally a happy subject. And I need to be in a happy state of mind to write about it, which I’m not. Which is sad, as this is not the wine’s fault.
Anyway, I will try to ease up back into writing by sharing some of [practically traditional] impressions of the Fall in Connecticut.
I have to say that this growing season was strange for many plants. For example, our beloved hydrangeas which reliably bloom every summer, produced literally no flowers – until the fall came, and beautiful balls of blue finally showed up – in October. The weather was also interesting going from 75F to 40F in a matter of two days. But we still got the colors – and this is what I’m happy to share here. Happy scrolling 🙂
New England’s Fall Colors, 2021 Edition
And here we are again in my favorite season – fall. It is still warm enough to enjoy the outdoors lightly clothed; running the air conditioning is no longer a necessity to survive indoors. And the colors, the abundance of colors – every season has its beauty, but fall offers the most profound expression of it.
This 2021 fall season is interesting (it is not over yet). It is still continuously warm, and so the leaves are still mostly green – it is occasional branches and individual leaves which all of a sudden offer a full brilliant display of red, golden, and orange. In this traditional New England fall post, I usually share pictures from my neighborhood walks, a tiny circle of two streets next to the house. Yesterday we wanted to get out of the house, and so we took about an hour drive to New Milford up north in Connecticut to visit Lover’s Leap State Park. We spent there about an hour, slowly walking the narrow path covered with fallen leaves, and admiring, or rather indulging, on absolute silence, crisp fall air, and views of the Housatonic River.
Absolute silence is a rare treasure – somehow, in the middle of the park you are far enough from the road, and maybe we just got lucky, but it was really an amazing feeling – not being disturbed by anything. It is hard to convey the silence and the smell of the autumn leaves through the words – so I have pictures for you – many, many pictures. Yes, pictures also don’t do justice to the perfect fall day outdoors but let me at least try…
Without further ado, here they are for your viewing enjoyment:
Here are more of the river views:
The trail:
Few of the random tree mushrooms:
And now, the color display:
Reflecting on the Beautiful Fall Colors
Fall is most beautiful time in New England – people often plan special trips from around the country to embrace that Fall beauty, when leaves take on unimaginable colors. This year, though, I was worrying that we will not get to experience that beauty fully. September was way warmer than usual, and by the end of the month most of the trees were as green as in June, so my fear was that the leaves will go from green to brown, depriving us of the breathtaking exuberance of colors.
This had been challenging year so far. While the work had been exciting and interesting, it required a lot bigger investment of time, as we are trying to get into the new areas – and time is not something which is easily scaling or expanding. The end result is a great reduction in time left to spend on this very blog. The year also happened to be extremely emotionally challenging, but of course this is simply part of life.
Beautiful, sparkling, unstoppable abundance of colors arrived in October, delivering endless “eye candies” with every look outside. I found time for a slow walk around the neighborhood with my daughter and my camera, trying to capture myriad little moments mother nature always ready to share with us. Now I want to share that beauty with you, just in case you need a little sparkle in your life. Cheers!
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