Autumn Leaf Watch, Weekly Report

NOTE: The following is the first in a series of weekly Nova Scotia Autumn Leaf Watch reports planned for this fall. Compiled by the Department of Tourism and Culture, the report includes summary paragraphs at the top of each trail section that can be lifted and used for a shorter report.

REGION 1: Evangeline Trail

Sugar maples are the first to start changing on the Evangeline Trail with splashes of bright red against lush-green foliage.

• Site 5, Digby: Still predominantly green, the forested hills over the bay are dotted with a few red-tinged maple trees and the white birches and beech trees which are starting to grow yellow. Grasses and marshlands are yellow and rust.

• Site 6, Bear River: Reds of the odd sugar maple are reflected in the river while pin-cherries are a wash of red and the staghorn sumac are turning.

• Site 9, Greenwich: Sugar maples are just starting to turn red and the goldenrod and wild fall flowers are still brightly in bloom.

• Site 10, Halls Harbour: Blackberries, rose hips and mountain- ash berries all around the picture-perfect village are ripe with colour.

• Site 18, Five Islands Provincial Park: Some red maples are going red and some of the bracken is tinged a rusty-yellow. Yellow birches are turning yellow and the red oaks are a good 15 per cent brown.

While looking for the first signs of autumn along the Evangeline Trail, join more than 100 villagers in mid-1800s costumes as they recreate the launch-day celebrations of the William D. Lawrence - the largest full-rigged ship ever built in Canada. The event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 16, in Maitland, Hants Co.

Be sure to join in the celebrations of Ciderfest, Bridgetown's annual festival of the apple harvest from Sept. 21-24.

REGION 2: Glooscap and Sunrise trails

Early signs of autumn are promising a colourful and exciting season all up and down the Glooscap and Sunrise trails.

• Site 13, Gore: Blueberry plants are a deep red; red maples are splashed with orange and red; and the grasses are a variety of browns.

• Site 15, Burntcoat Head Park: Surrounding farm fields and alders are turning yellow and brown. Bracken is a burgundy colour and the mountain ash berries and apples in the trees are creating splashes of reds.

• Site 16, Shubenacadie: Sugar and red maples are sprinkled with red.

• Site 24, Nuttby Mountain: Sugar maple forests are a yellow- green, indicating the splendor soon to come. Some red maples have turned and the fields of oats are gentle shades of gold.

• Site 25, Balmoral Mills: Splashes of red in the maple trees are visible up the stream. Renovations to the mill are in progress.

• Site 27, Greenhill: Pockets of shrubs and trees are showing red and grasses are beginning to turn brown.

See the miller process wheat, oats, barley, rye and buckwheat into flour at the Balmoral Grist Mill Museum in Balmoral Mills, near Tatamagouche. Demonstrations occur daily from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Help launch the Ship Hector, an authentic replica of the ship that brought the first Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia. Launch celebrations take place this weekend, Sept. 15-17, in Pictou, Pictou Co.

REGION 3: Cape Breton Island

Throughout Cape Breton Island autumn reds, yellows and browns are sprinkled against the lingering rich greens of a summer just past.

• Site 31, Mabou Salt Marsh: Over half the grasses and cattails in the marshes have turned an orange-yellow.

• Site 38, Kelly's Mountain: A few red maples are very red and most of the alders, shrubs and ferns are showing a variety of browns.

• Site 39, Long Island: The panoramic view is a lush green lightly spotted with the reds of red maples and the golden-brown of ferns.

• Site 41, North Side East Bay: Red maples are just starting to show a tinge of red in the lowlands and moist areas.

• Site 45, Marble Mountain: A slight shift toward greenish-yellow in some of the trees. Ferns are turning brown.

Welcome autumn in the style of the early 1900s at Harvest Home held at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck on Saturday, Sept. 16.

Enjoy a nostalgic afternoon of railway displays, musical entertainment, and a light lunch and refreshments at the Orangedale Railway Station Annual Open House in Orangedale, Richmond Co., on Sunday, Sept. 17.

REGION 4: Marine Drive and Halifax-Dartmouth

It won't be long now. There's an air of expectancy in the trees, shrubs, fields and marshlands in the Halifax-Dartmouth area and all the way along the Marine Drive.

• Site 56, Elderbank: The Musquodoboit River is reflecting sprinkles of red maple starting to turn red and a tinge of yellow from the aspen trees. Alders and ground vegetation are beginning to show brown. Canada Geese are now in small groups.

• Site 60, Frog Pond: A few maples are starting to turn while the wild fall flowers, including knapweed, touch-me-nots, aster, water lilies, deadly nightshade and rose hips are a blaze of colour.

Take in the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, offering current films from the four Atlantic provinces, the rest of Canada and internationally from countries bordering the North Atlantic Rim. Takes place from Friday, Sept. 15 to Saturday, Sept. 23.

The time is ripe for sipping freshly pressed apple cider and munching ginger snaps at Sherbrooke Village's Apple Cider Weekend, Saturday, Sept. 16, and Sunday, Sept. 17.

Thrill your taste buds with Nova Scotia succulent fruit prepared in grunts, buckles and cobblers. Blueberry Thrills will be held at the Fisherman's Life Museum in Jeddore on the Marine Drive, on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

Visit Millennium Bugs at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax and learn the fascinating story of insects and their relatives, now through to October 31. Also view beautiful photos featuring fall colours and autumn foliage by award-winning photographer Stephen Patterson, from Sept. 19 to Oct. 31.

REGION 5: Lighthouse Route

Leaf Watchers are reporting no evidence of autumn colours yet along the Lighthouse Route.

Enjoy the arts? About 100 hosts are participating in four gala days of arts, crafts, heritage and performance with the South Shore Festival of the Arts. The festival takes place throughout the South Shore from Thursday, Sept. 14 to Sunday, Sept. 17.

Stop by and help make jack-o'-lanterns and hear pumpkin poetry at the Ross-Thompson House and Store Museum in Shelburne, on Saturday, Sept. 16.