leaf peeping

Leaf peeping: 

an informal term, commonly used in the United States, 

for people who travel to view and photograph the fall foliage 

in areas where foliage changes colors, particularly New England. 

The origin of the term "leaf peeping" is not well known. 

A similar custom in Japan is called momijigari.  

we'd been waiting for it for months. the brilliant colors that everyone was talking about. i'd see a peek here and a snippet of color there and get shivers i was so excited. we were told that the first weekend in october is always when it happens - when the leaves suddenly change and all of new england is a colorful playground. 

well, here's what the first weekend of october looked like.  

 {the view from my bedroom window.}

pretty, yes. but not really jaw-dropping. or at least not what i was expecting. that entire week we wondered, "did we miss it?" "was it just an off year?" "did the hurricane and floods have an effect on the foliage?" "this can't be what everyone was talking about...it has to get better than this." 

and get better it did. we just had to wait a week. let the record books show that october 9th is the day it all went down. i went to bed on my birthday and woke up the next morning to a fall foliage wonderland. this, my friends, was the new view from my bedroom window. 

it was incredible. 

i'll stop now and let the trees do the talking. and no, i couldn't narrow it down.