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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!
Full Force of Colors – New England Fall 2018
Everything has its silver lining – at least this is what we, optimists, think. The “Fall Foliage” is one of the most famous attractions of New England – travel agencies offer special tours and people literally from around the world are happy to come to experience the abundance of color, which typically takes place during the month of October. Only last year (2017), the real abundance of colors never really arrived – of course, trees changed colors and leaves fell down – but it was rather a boring fall instead of a typical color festival.
The 2018 overall was one of the wettest years I remember. It rained non-stop the whole summer, and it was hot. The fall was simply a continuation of the same – we still had to run the A/C in October, and it was raining every couple of days. All the trees were still practically summer-green well into the second half of October. And then the silver lining showed up – Mother Nature magically turned on the color, and the streets and roads became anything but boring – amazing, amazing sight anywhere you look, every day bringing more colors and more joy with it.
As I had done it many times in the past (here are a few posts: 2012, 2013, 2015), I took a few pictures while walking around my neighborhood – with iPhone in your pocket, taking pictures had never been that easy – and now I want to share these beautiful New England fall colors with you. This year we visited for the first time Mark Twain’s museum (mansion) in Hartford, so I included a few pictures here as well.
Hope you will enjoy the beautiful colors as much as I do. Cheers!
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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