We've certainly not experienced an early frost although the days are not as long or as warm but in the last few days it has been obvious that the maples that are not already red are starting to blush as are the wild grapes and the sumac one wonders whether the changing leaves have no shame or sense of sin like Hester Prynne in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter or are living testament that pride must suffer pain as Andersen's Little Mermaid is told by her grandmother when she proposes to give up her tail fin her identity and her life in the sea in exchange for legs and feet and the soul of a tree or perhaps these blushing leaves are merely accepting of the cycle of the seasons not forgetting age and its devastation but that's not really in play with the leaves as the trees are very much with the living or maybe they were blowing Dixie double four time showing it's possible to have your cake and eat it too...