Autumn Leaf Watch, Weekly Report

NOTE: The following is the sixth 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.

Nova Scotia is bursting out everywhere in a commanding kaleidoscope of colour, crackling-crisp leaves, and the rich aroma of autumn at its height.

REGION 1: Evangeline Trail

Cool mornings and warm, sunny afternoons, combined with an extravagance of colour, sound, and smell are a delight for all the senses on the Evangeline Trail.

• Site 1, Arcadia: A symphony of autumn colour dazzles the eye with scarlet red maple, mountain-ash, and Canada holly, golden sugar maple, sienna white birch, yellow birch, and aspen, and the earth tones of alder, fern, and grass. Chickadees and goldfinch abound among the still-blooming blue aster.

• Site 2, Ellenwood Lake Provincial Park: Most of the leaves in the lush hardwood canopy have peaked and are starting to fall and form a colourful and crunchy carpet underfoot.

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

Smith's Cove: From the trail, trembling and large-toothed aspen, oak, striped maple, and white ash all combine into a magnificent display of yellow. At the look-off, sugar maple is yellow and orange, and the view reveals a patchwork of showy colour along the mouth of the Bear River. A stand of aspen next to the river by the bridge is a brilliant saffron-yellow. Mountain-ash, wild rose, and pin-cherry add a strong element of burgundy to the landscape.

• Site 6, Bear River: The forests along both sides of the river are at their height and so chockablock full of colour, they're like a bowlful of candy.

Greenwich: The glowing yellows and oranges of the birch and maple interspersed among the greens of the hemlock on the slopes of Deep Hollow Road are utterly enchanting. Outbursts of bright red from the red maple are striking and intense.

• Site 8, Aylesford: The southern ridge along the North Mountain is awash in autumn colour.

• Site 9, Kentville: Take a leisurely walk along a shady stream and discover the fascinating world of mushrooms with the Museum of Natural History's botanist at the Kentville Ravine, Kentville Research Station, on Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Site 10, Halls Harbour: It's leaf-kicking time on the Echo Trail under the cornucopia of scarlets, golds, and ambers of sugar maple, red maple, and other hardwood.

• Site 11, The Look-off (north of Canning): Sprinkled like candy for the eye, 75 per cent of the hardwood has burst into colours of red, orange, and yellow mixed with some still-green apple trees.

• Site 12, Smiths Corner: There's an even wash of colour across the branches, punctuated with the vermillion of red maple and staghorn sumac. Red oak is going orange, and aspen and white birch are turning yellow.

Enjoy Wizard of Oz characters, orchard tours, pumpkin contests, and more at the Apple Harvest Festival in Wolfville, Oct. 20-22.

Celebrate the arts at the Arts Festival in Annapolis Royal with a costume ball, art exhibits, and readings by famous Canadian authors on Oct. 21 and 22.

Explore history at the Prescott House Museum in Starr's Point near Wolfville. Hear the family's story and learn about the role they played in the field of medicine and the First World War.

Drop in and see the Firefighters Museum of Nova Scotia in Yarmouth.

REGION 2: Glooscap and Sunrise Trails

As autumn hits full stride, the Glooscap and Sunrise Trails are a work of art.

• Site 13, Gore: An impressive variety of colour blankets the fields along the road. Wide vistas of sugar maple, birch, and aspen among a patchwork of green conifers are predominantly orange and yellow, with shrub and blueberry creating accents of wine-red.

• Site 15, Burntcoat Head Park: Still no frost, so fall flowers and apples are hanging on. Hardwood trees and grass among the trails are sienna and amber and becoming drenched in earth tones.

• Site 16, Shubenacadie: Fields are saturated with red, orange, yellow, brown, and green. Red maple has peaked to brilliant red colours, and sugar maple is resplendent in orange and yellow, and the leaves are falling. Aspen is saffron, ash is sprinkled with brown, and oak is still partly green.

• Site 18, Five Islands: Large pockets of red are commanding the sugar maple and staghorn sumac, and the red oak and shrub are adorned with hot-orange. White birch, yellow birch, aspen, and fern are yellow, fawn and buff. Cedar is amber and most of the ash is red-purple.

• Site 19, Kirkhill: Autumn colour is widespread throughout the vista of Parrsboro. Most of the colour is yellow and orange in the maple, birch and grass, and flecked with the odd red sugar maple.

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

• Site 21, Amherst: The Tantramar Marsh is a spectacular sea of golden grass.

• Site 22, Fenwick: Leaves are starting to startle from the red sugar maple, and yellow-ochre white birch, and aspen. The last birch has changed colour and the maple is starting to fade.

• Site 23, Wentworth: The valley is aglow with orange, yellow, and rust, while the reds of the maple are starting to fail, and all but the last of the birch has turned colour. On Swallow Road everything is saturated in the colours of autumn, and the leaves are beginning to fall.

• Site 24, Wallace: Captivating colours are widespread 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: Most of the red and orange coloured leaves have been blown off the trees by recent high winds. Reflecting now in the mill pond are mostly yellow hardwood, and some purple beech trees.

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

• Site 26, Mount Thom: Leaves are beginning to fall among red maple which is resplendent in red, yellow, and orange, and saffron-yellow sugar maple. Ash is a variety of yellow, brown, and dark purple. The mountain-ash is gold with bright red berries, and poplar is glowing yellow. Acres of blueberry are steeped in stunning magenta.

• Site 27, Greenhill: Yellow, gold, and ochre are the predominate colours of the view overlooking the farmlands and landscape surrounding Pictou Harbour. Leaves are falling.

• Site 28, Marshy Hope: The leaves are falling among the exploding red maple, and the light yellow aspen is dappled with green. The hillsides between James River and Marshy Hope are at full colour, and there is an overall effect of burnished copper with cranberry-red highlights, and dashes of creamy-yellow.

• Site 30, Pomquet: Awash in exquisite tones of gold, the marsh glows warmly as the autumn sun casts long shadows from the edge of the forest. The orange and yellow colours of the red maple, striped maple, birch, aspen, and beech is spectacular. Some white ash has golden and burgundy leaves. The red maple has been partially denuded by recent winds.

Enjoy a great assortment of crafts and baking at the Christmas in the Country Craft Fair at Latties Brook on Saturday, Oct. 21.

Don't miss the harvest pot luck supper in Masstown on Saturday, Oct. 21.

Be a mad scientist with Dr. David Bunbury's chemistry magic show at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton on Saturday, Oct. 21.

See the paintings of three local artists at the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro from Saturday, Oct. 21 to Saturday, Dec. 30.

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

Autumn has reached its peak, and irresistible piles of fresh aromatic leaves, and astounding vistas of colour in full slendor await visitors to Cape Breton Island.

• Site 31, Mabou Salt Marsh: Marsh grass and cattail are completely coloured in a superb rusty-orange. Like strings of Chinese lanterns, the hardwood around the marsh is shining with bright yellow, orange, red, and green.

• Site 32, Margaree Valley: Along the river the red maple and sugar maple is sparkling in shades of red and orange, and there's a brilliant yellow in the birch and aspen.

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

• Site 34, French Mountain: Below the yellow leaves of the birch trees the poison ivy is spreading a vivid crimson carpet along the highway and among the yellow grasses of the shore. Cinnamon fern is deepening 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 is all yellow and the blueberry on the hillsides is magenta. Through the Grand Anse valley sugar maple and ash is splashed with crimson, while the huckleberry on the barrens is rust coloured

• Site 36, Cape North: It's a fireworks-like display in every shade of yellow and red along the mountainside. Leaves have begun to fall and the rich, heady scent of autumn permeates the air.

• Site 38, Kelly's Mountain: The spectacular panoramic view from St. Ann's Look-off indicates colour just past its peak, yet at the same time it has a lovely richness to it. The leaves have not yet started to fall.

• Site 39, Long Island: Around the sparkling waters of St. Ann's Bay the picturesque view is busting out in golden-yellow white birch and aspen.

• Site 40, Kennington Cove: All along the shoreline the shrub, fern, and grass of the bogs are completely drenched in haunting tones of sienna, ochre, and amber.

• Site 41, North Side East Bay: The hardwood hills on the ridges of the group of islands show bright highlights of crimson red maple and golden-yellow birch.

• Site 42, Irish Cove Scenic Look-off and Provincial Park: Around East Bay and Big Bras d'Or Lake it's all awash in the orchestral tones of magnificent autumn colour.

• Site 43, Martinique: The scenic vista overlooking the wetlands, water, and hardwoods of Isle Madam and Lennox Passage is humming with peak colours of deep red, brilliant yellow, and orange mixed with brown.

• Site 44, Dundee-West Bay: The islands and inland hardwood hills are a feast for the eye with dazzling colours of crimson red maple, mountain-ash, and pin-cherry, the orange of choke-cherry and shrub, the yellow of birch and aspen, and the bronze of alder, fern, and grass.

• Site 45, Marble Mountain: Backed by the brilliant hardwoods of Marble Mountain, the patchwork of islands framed by Bras d'Or Lake is colourful beyond compare. The overall hue is an exceptional orange and yellow, with some scattered trembling aspen still green.

• Site 46, Salt Mountain: More than three-quarters of the red maple and sugar maple is glittering in shades of red and orange, and the birch and aspen is sparkling yellow.

Enjoy taking tea the 1700s way at the Cossit House Museum in Sydney every Sunday afternoon in October. There are quilting demonstrations every day.

Glimpse living history celebrating the culture of the Gaelic- speaking Scots who settled in Nova Scotia at the Nova Scotia Highland Village in Iona, Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

REGION 4: Marine Drive and Halifax-Dartmouth

It's fall in full bloom and a whole symphony of sensational colour, fresh air, and waves sparkling upon the sea await your pleasure on the Marine Drive and in the Halifax-Dartmouth area.

• Site 47, Boylston Provincial Park: Like a jumble of candy, the trees along the shore of Chedabucto Bay are displayed in all the showy shades of autumn.

• Site 48, Lundy: The barrens at Lundy are close to peak with wide ranging reds, yellows, oranges, and greens among the grey granite boulders. In the distance the surrounding hills offer a kaleidoscope of flamboyant colour.

• 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: Along the water a cacophony of colour greets the walker. The mix of hardwood and evergreen is very appealing with maple dominated by reds. There is a combination of maple, roadside bush, and choke-cherry arrayed in orange. Maple birch and grass are displayed in yellow. Hacmatac, alder, and brush are showing up in shades of brown.

• Site 54, Clam Harbour Provincial Park: Marsh grass and fern are glowing golden-brown. Red maple, mountain-ash, pin-cherry, staghorn sumac, and blueberry are sparkling in shades of cardinal and cinnamon. White birch, yellow birch, and aspen are washed in tints of ochre, and the cranberries are fully ripened to red.

• Site 56, Elderbank: Along the sensuous Musquodoboit River the red maple and sugar maple are completely steeped in colour while the birch and aspen retains a touch of green. Red oak, alder, shrub, fern, and grass are cast in russet brown.

Martinique Beach Provincial Park: The site is alive 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: The leaves have all turned and are beginning to fall. Maple is gorgeous red and orange, and ground shrub and Boston ivy are dazzling vermilion, while aspen and ash are cast in yellow and orange.

• Site 60, Halifax: Leaves have begun to drop at Frog Pond amidst a lively backdrop of colour in the trees overhead, underfoot along the path and floating at the edge of the pond. A full spectrum of golds, oranges and magentas seen through the early- morning mist rising on the pond is a pure delight.

Come to the Dartmouth Handcrafters Guild Christmas Craft Festival at the Dartmouth Sportsplex Oct. 20-22.

There's lots to do at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. On Saturday, Oct. 21 make your own mask for Halloween with members of the Costume Society of Nova Scotia. View wonderful photographs featuring fall colours and autumn foliage by award- winning photographer Stephen Patterson through to Tuesday, Oct. 31. Learn all about October's tree of the month, the birch, its importance and some of its traditions and uses.

See the Nova Scotia Fall Ideal Home Show in Halifax, a consumer exhibition focusing on the various sectors of the home building and renovating industry, Oct. 20-22.

Listen to foghorns of the past at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m.

REGION 5: Lighthouse Route

The Lighthouse Route is waiting to captivate your spirit with the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn at its most explosive peak.

Blandford: The route around the Aspotogen Peninsula from East River is steeped in autumn colour.

• Site 62, New Ross: The hardwoods at Ross Farm are in bright colour, mostly yellows and golds and there are lots of red, orange, brown, and yellow in the maple and ash. The leaves are slowly starting to fall off the trees. Ross Farm is open until Tuesday, Oct. 31.

East River: Maple has all changed to bright orange and red, mountain-ash is yellow with orange berries, and birch, grass, and seaweed has changed to brown and yellow.

Tantallon: Maple and blueberry are florescent red and orange, and the birch and aspen has changed almost completely to a fiery yellow.

• Site 64, First Peninsula: An electrifying array of colour surrounds Lunenburg Harbour and the leaves are just starting to drop.

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

• Site 68, Kejimkujik National Park: The hill across the river is covered in sunny yellows, soft oranges, and the occasional red. About a quarter of the leaves have fallen. Along the river's edge the colors are mostly chestnut, auburn, and a dull yellow with some quiet green alder at the edge of the bronzed grass. Elsewhere three-quarters of the leaves have dropped and what remains of the colour is bright orange and red.

• Site 69, Milton: A kaleidoscopic blend of all the colours of autumn frame the white spires of the two country churches reflecting from the Mersey River. White pine trees appear bluish- green.

• 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 sugar maple, oak, aspen, fern, alder, marsh grass, berries, pine, and spruce.

Focus on history with Remembering Black Loyalists and Black Communities at the Shelburne County Museum. This is an exhibit introducing the story of the black loyalists who came to Nova Scotia between 1783 and 1785.

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

Drop by the Wile Carding Mill Museum in Bridgewater and see a very special quilt crafted by seven local quilters.

See the brilliant colour of autumn leaves in New Ross at Ross Farm, an historic family farm illustrating pioneer life in the late 1800s.