Autumn Leaf Watch, Weekly Report

NOTE: The following is the fifth 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.

All over Nova Scotia, rustling leaves, scintillating colour and the rich intoxicating smells of an autumn close to peak are a clarion call to get out and enjoy the exquisite bounty of nature.

REGION 1: Evangeline Trail

Intense colour is exploding in a shower of pigment all over the Evangeline Trail.

• Site 1, Arcadia: Along the boardwalk half the marsh is burnished in sienna and the mountain-ash is a beautiful red among the evergreen.

• Site 2, Ellenwood Lake Provincial Park: Ninety per cent of the upper canopy is resplendent in peak colour.

• Site 5, Digby: The leaves are dropping along the woodland trails which are spread evenly with patches of red, orange and yellow. The marsh is awash in hues of yellow and gold, and sprinkled with a full array of autumn colour. Reflecting off the bay, the reds of maple and yellows of birch are marvelous to behold. Half the blueberry fields are deep wine-red.

Smith's Cove: Colour is busting out everywhere with half the area emblazoned in the colours of autumn. The maple has turned nearly all red and the birch, aspen and beech a bright yellow. There is lots of green, yellow-green and deep green contrast with oak leaves deepening to red, and abundant pin-cherry and mountain-ash berries are bright red and orange. Barberry bush is turning red, daphne berries are ripe, and witherod has crimson leaves with dark purple berries. Striped maple, ash, sugar maple and beech are tinted orange, while oak and alder are brown. The purple and yellow of the white ash is very striking, and their leaves are dropping in abundance.

• Site 6, Bear River: The hills all along the river are spotted with red and orange in the sugar maple, pin-cherry, staghorn sumac and choke-cherry. Fern and grass is a reservoir of gold. The best place to view the river and the splendid colours of fall is from the Purdy-Chute Road leading into Bear River.

Greenwich: The Deep Hollow Road between Greenwich and White Rock is now a corridor of many colours. Red maple and sugar maple are swatches of superb red, orange and yellow. Birch is gold and white ash is yellow and purple, while trees such as hemlock and aspen are shades of green. The proportions of the various colours change along the road but at any one point the scenery is absolutely breathtaking and well worth the drive.

• Site 8, Aylesford: Along the North Mountain a tinge of colour is showing in most of the branches.

• Site 10, Halls Harbour: Most of the maple along the Echo Trail are intensely red and half the leaves have fallen to form a crunchy carpet underfoot. Mountain-ash is completely flame-red and the all fern is bronze and copper.

• Site 11, The Lookoff (north of Canning): Reds, oranges and yellows have emblazoned the upper branches of trees while the patchwork fields below are a burnished work of art.

• Site 12, Smiths Corner: There's an even tinge of colour across the branches, mostly a reddening of the red maple and staghorn sumac. The red oak is going orange, and aspen and white birch is turning yellow.

Explore history at the Prescott House Museum in Starr's Point, near Wolfville. Hear the family's story and find out the role some of them played in the field of medicine and the First World War. Bring the family for ghost stories, face painting, Victorian Games, a barbecue and lots of surprises, Oct. 14-15.

Visit the antique treasures at North Hills Museum featuring changing displays of antiques from the Robert Patterson collection. The Granville Ferry runs daily until Sunday, Oct.15.

Drop in and see the Firefighter's Museum of Nova Scotia in Yarmouth.

REGION 2: Glooscap and Sunrise Trails

A full palette of autumn sensation awaits nature lovers everywhere on the Glooscap and Sunrise trails.

• Site 13, Gore: Half the Courthouse Hill site is evenly coloured with shades of crimson from the red maple, sugar maple and blueberry, and the red oak is splashed with orange. Yellow birch, white ash and aspen is a soft yellow interspersed with yellow- green.

• Site 15, Burntcoat Head Park: Half the site is steeped in the colours of fall and intermixed with off-green shades and tints. Sugar maple and miscellaneous shrub is a jumble of surprising reds, oranges and yellows. Red maple and mountain-ash is bright crimson, and other shrub and fern is copper-coloured. The striped maple, white and yellow birch, and aspen is a wonderful saffron- yellow. Astonishing browns and siennas are wide-spread among the shrub, fern, grass and clover fields.

• Site 16, Shubenacadie: Brisk colours are startling through the blueberry, maple and burning-bush and the cherry, sumac and grasses are chiming in. Behind the church overlooking the Shubenacadie River, the red maple, sugar maple, yellow birch, poplar, ash and oak are a livid medley of red, orange, yellow and brown.

• Site 18, Five Islands: Pockets of high colour are appearing in the reds of the sugar maple and staghorn sumac, and the red oak and shrub is adorned in hot orange. White birch, yellow birch, aspen and fern is yellow, fawn and buff. Cedar is amber and most of the ash is purple-red.

• Site 19, Kirkhill: Maple has turned bright scarlet and the grass is awash in tones of amber.

• Site 20, Cape Chignecto Peninsula: More than half of Cape d'Or is covered in exquisite fall colours. The landscape is turning red with mountain-ash and blueberries, while sugar maple is orange, and white birch, yellow birch and aspen is yellow. Shrub, fern and grass is washed in earth-tone shades and dappled with brown alder.

• Site 21, Amherst: Grasses are all burnished gold, orange, yellow and russet.

• Site 22, Fenwick: More than half the site is steeped in flame- coloured red maple and blueberry, and yellow-ochre white birch and white ash.

• Site 23, Wentworth: The mountain is draped in red, orange and yellow with the maple, mountain-ash, shrub, fern and grass all near full glowing colour. Half the lowland areas are sparkling with fall hues in the maple, birch, beech and oak. Ash, beech and alder are glowing light to strong yellow. At High Head, the highest point at Ski Wentworth, the whole view of the valley is a glowing golden yellow from the white and yellow birch, striped maple and aspen. Maple trees and blueberry are a spectacular red, outdone only by the pin-cherry and choke-cherry. Alder, fern and grass is tinted mahogany.

• Site 24, Wallace: Wide-spread colour is showing up in swathes of red and gold, while grass along the shoreline has turned coppery and the geese are busy in the harbour.

• Site 25, Balmoral Mills: Maple tree-tops are blanketed in red, orange and yellow.

Nuttby Mountain: An enchanting effect of golden-yellow and orange leaves cover almost all of the hardwood hills. Scattered patches of crimson-red maple dot the greens of the white spruce forests.

• Site 26, Mount Thom: Red maple is in full colour, resplendent in reds, yellows and orange, and sugar maples leaves are turning saffron-yellow. Ash is a variety of yellow, brown and dark purple. Mountain-ash is gold with bright red berries and poplar is becoming tinged with a yellow glow. Acres of blueberry are steeped in stunning red.

• Site 27, Greenhill: Among the brilliant red, orange and yellow of the red maple, sugar maple, choke-cherry, elm, white and yellow birch and white ash, there are large pockets of aspen lightly tinged in gold.

• Site 28, Marshy Hope: Hard frosts have turned the leaves, and at a distance the hillsides are well coloured. Yellow birch and sugar maple are at their peak, ranging from yellow to orange and laced with crimson from the red maple. Ash is turning brown with undertones of purple, and aspen is turning yellow. Amounts of patchy green still appear in the softwood and lower canopy leaves.

• Site 30, Pomquet: The view of the hill facing south and overlooking the salt marsh and brook emptying into Pomquet Harbour is quite captivating with crimson red maple and birch going yellow. Poison ivy is a distinct peachy-orange going deep maroon, and the sarsaparilla is sandy-yellow.

Come to the Hogmanay Craft Fair at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton, this weekend, Oct. 14-15. The intimate, high quality event will have a variety of homemade products and food.

See Joy Laking's Watercolour Gallery open house in Portapique this weekend, Oct. 14-15.

Marvel at the coral and see the photograph exhibit at the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro, from Saturday, Oct. 14, to Friday, Dec. 15.

Come see an exhibit of art depicting scenes of a Pictou County autumn in the Hector Exhibit Centre, in Pictou, until Sunday, Oct. 29.

REGION 3: Cape Breton Island

The Island of Cape Breton is blanketed in the sensuous hues and tones of autumn, and the air is filled with the heady aroma and sounds of leaves rustling.

• Site 31, Mabou Salt Marsh: The grasses of the marsh are a commanding yellow-orange and russet-brown. The outer edge of the marsh is still tinged with green and half the trees surrounding the marsh are coloured a startling red and warm yellow.

• Site 32, Margaree Valley: Half the grand view of the valley is painted in red, orange and yellow, especially in the maple and birch, and interspersed with gentle shades of green.

• Site 33, Cap Le-Moine: Rose hips are a terrific scarlet, and the birch is continuing to yellow while about one-fifth of the mountain-ash and hawthorn is laden with vermilion berries. Tall grass is bronzing up and the salt marshes are luminous in tones of gold. The countryside is dotted with red pin-cherry and the apple trees are displaying a harvest of luscious fruit.

• Site 34, French Mountain: Birch is yellowing, while poison ivy is spreading a vivid crimson carpet along the highway and among the yellow grasses of the shore. Cinnamon fern is deepening from shades of yellow to orange, and scarlet wood laurel hugs the Cabot Trail descending the mountain.

• Site 35, Pleasant Bay: At the base of the mountain the birch has advanced to yellow and the blueberry on the hillsides has gone magenta. Through the Grand Anse valley sugar maple and ash is splashed with crimson. Huckleberry on the barrens is rust coloured, and along the roadside the white pearly everlasting is sprinkled with the purple blooms of willow-herb.

• Site 36, Cape North: Mid-slope is a blaze of colour intermingled with shades of green. White ash is bronze and red, aspen and birch is hot yellow, and maple is dusted with pinkish- orange, red, yellow and deep wine.

• Site 38, Kelly's Mountain: The view from St. Ann's Lookoff is mostly saffron-yellow with a few pockets of green. Baddeck looks very beautiful.

• Site 39, Long Island: Close to three-quarters of the site has exploded in a rapture of colour with maples red, and birch and aspen yellow.

• Site 40, Kennington Cove: The unique plants in the raised bogs along the storm-etched shore line are bursting out in colour.

• Site 41, North Side East Bay: Along the ridges of the hardwood hills on the group of islands the colours of fall are showing with highlights of crimson-red maple and golden-yellow birch.

• Site 42, Irish Cove Scenic Look-off and Provincial Park: The panoramic view of the Bras d'Or Lake is emblazoned in the full spectrum of autumn pigment.

• Site 44, Dundee/West Bay: The islands and hillsides of the bay are a picturesque patchwork of hardwood and grass in the dazzling hues of fall.

• Site 45, Marble Mountain: Close to peak, the colours are superbly intense with deep crimson and orange-red maple and sugar maple, while service berry is crimson. Almost half the site is covered in the rich yellows of beech, birch, red and sugar maple, striped maple and white ash.

• Site 46, Salt Mountain: Half the site is painted in orange, red and yellow, and interspersed with tints and tones of green.

Attend the Sydney Christmas Fair from Thursday, Oct.12, to Sunday, Oct. 15. Cape Breton's largest Christmas show will have 100 craft, food and antique vendors from five provinces.

The Celtic Colours International Festival is breaking out all over Cape Breton until Saturday, Oct. 14. Enjoy the island's most beautiful season to the sounds of fiddles, pipes and voices in song. Over 250 musicians, dancers, singers and storytellers will be at venues across the island.

Enjoy taking tea the 1700s way at the Cossit House Museum in Sydney every Sunday afternoon in October.

REGION 4: Marine Drive and Halifax-Dartmouth

An astonishing range of colours has transformed the Marine Drive and Halifax-Dartmouth areas into a glimmering enchantment of visual pleasure.

• Site 47, Boylston Provincial Park: Throughout the park and the opposite shore of Chedabucto Bay, the red maple, sugar maple, mountain-ash, pin-cherry and choke-cherry are scarlet and gold. Shrub and grass is bronze and russet, and wild apple trees are sporting red and yellow fruit.

• Site 48, Lundy: Grass and shrub on the Lundy Barrens has grown yellow, red and purple, while small clumps of red maple, mountain-ash and pin-cherry have brightened to orange, red and yellow. Blueberry and rhodora is awash in purple.

• Site 49, Stillwater: Sugar maple, red maple and shrub form a quilt of scarlet and yellow in the higher hills. White birch, yellow birch, aspen, shrub, fern and grass are tinged auburn and chestnut.

• Site 50, Liscombe Mills: Colours of red, orange and yellow are exploding throughout the forest. Fiery-red maple dominate the forest hues which are laced with hot orange maple and roadside brush. Flaming gold lights up the white birch, yellow birch and grass. A hike along the Liscombe River is spectacular with the rush of water, the smells of fall and the awesome colours of the trees.

• Site 54, Clam Harbour Provincial Park: There is a glowing yellow blanketing the land, pasture and forest. Rose hips are bright red and plump, bracken and other fern is vivid sienna, and the cranberry is ripe. Witherod berries are going purple, and alder, fern and cattail is russet-brown.

• Site 56, Elderbank: Crimson-red maple, pin-cherry, staghorn sumac and blueberry are dominating the landscape, closely followed by the oranges of sugar maple, red oak choke-cherry and shrub. Elm, white birch, yellow birch, aspen, red oak, alder, shrub, fern and grass and acres of unharvested corn are yellow and brown.

Martinique Beach Provincial Park: The site is lively with the fall colours of scarlet maple and pin-cherry, orange wild raisin, yellow white birch, and hazel-brown grass and alder.

• Site 59, Mount Uniacke: All the leaves, except oak, the last to change, have turned, and many are beginning to fall. Maple is gorgeous red and orange, and some ground shrub and Boston ivy is dazzling vermilion, while aspen and ash are cast in yellow and orange. Hike the Red Spruce Trail with the Uniacke Estate Museum Park's botanist on Saturday, Oct. 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

• Site 60, Halifax: The full spectrum of autumn colour graces the Frog Pond site with majestic reds and yellows from the red maple, sugar maple, and the white birch. The fern and grass is shining in shades of yellow.

The Fultz House Museum is holding a Sauerkraut and October Fest with sausage, cake and pie on Saturday, Oct. 14, in Sackville.

A community-based old fashioned church supper with turkey and all the trimmings is being held in Middle Musquodoboit on Saturday, Oct. 14.

See what a well-dressed lady wore to tea in 1828 and learn about clothing in the 1800s with a revealing talk about dress at Uniacke Estate Museum Park on Saturday, Oct. 14, from 3 p.m to 4 p.m.

There's lots happening at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. Enjoy a beautiful mix of blooming orchids at the Nova Scotia Orchid Society's annual fall show and sale this weekend, Oct. 14-15. Also view wonderful photographs featuring fall colours and autumn foliage by award-winning photographer Stephen Patterson through to Tuesday, Oct. 31. Mr. Patterson will present a colourful show on leaves and autumn foliage in the museum auditorium Wednesday, Oct. 18, at 7:30 p.m.

REGION 5: Lighthouse Route

Bursting with wild majesty, the sensational splendor of autumn is lighting up the Lighthouse Route with commanding colour, sound and smell.

Blanford: More than half the route around the Aspotogan Peninsula from East River is steeped in autumn colour.

• Site 62, New Ross: The maple is bathed in shades of red and orange, and perfectly enchanting against the dark green evergreen and lighter green hardwood.

East River: Half the trees have now changed to scintillating red, orange and yellow, while others are only barely starting to turn. Seaweed and grass is ochre coloured and the willow is a silvery- green.

Tantallon: Almost half the site is simmering in deep burgundy. Red blueberry plants and a number of sugar maple and red maple have turned bright scarlet and orange. Patches of yellow and white birch are glowing yellow.

• Site 64, First Peninsula: Half to three-quarters of the north slope of Lunenburg bordering Back Harbour has colours that are well defined with clusters of different species becoming very noticeable. Across the harbour a third of the trees are showing crimson and orange. Many trees, noticeably the apple, pear and most of the small brush along the roadside has not yet changed.

• Site 65, Wentzells Lake: From the calm lake the astonishing reflection of a forest almost completely bathed in the colours of autumn is quite breathtaking.

• Site 68, Kejimkujik National Park: In the hardwoods on the Mersey Meadow the colours are at 100 per cent change with half the reds and yellows coming from the maple, aspen and birch, and almost all the orange from maple. A quarter of the area is russet-brown, mainly from the fern and grass along the river's edge. Everywhere the leaves are dropping.

• Site 66, Milton: A few small frosts have begun to paint the landscape with a variety of picturesque colour.

• Site 73, Barrington: The superb colours of the season are close to full glory. Electrifying the bay is a blend of red, orange, yellow, brown and evergreen from the mix of pine, spruce, sugar maple, oak, aspen, fern, alder, marsh grass and berries.

The New Ross Craft Fair will feature quality crafts, great varieties of needle and wood work, stained glass, baked goods and Christmas items with quilting and other demonstrations on Saturday, Oct. 14, in New Ross.

See wool being spun into yarn and make your own sheep pictures from real wool, daily at the Perkins House Museum in Liverpool.

Find out how people lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Visit a house and store from the time of the Loyalist settlement in Shelburne, daily until Sunday, Oct. 15.