Autumn Leaf Watch, Weekly Report

NOTE: The following is the third 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.

Some areas of Nova Scotia are bursting out with between 25 and 50 per cent of their autumn colours and the first frost has hit some spots indicating the dazzling display soon to explode.

Join the provincewide Studio Rally with art and craft studios opening their doors Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1. The art and craft studios are listed in the Studio Map available at tourism information centres.

REGION 1: Evangeline Trail

Berries and wild flowers are creating a startling contrast against the rich mixed forests of the Evangeline trail, while more and more trees are beginning to show brilliant fall colours.

• Site 1, Arcadia: The evergreens along the boardwalk in Uktobuk Trail are sprinkled with fiery-red mountain ash, brick-red blueberries and yellow goldenrod.

• Site 5, Digby: The forest is still green but the red maple is tinged with scarlet and the birch with yellow. Throughout the viewing area of the Pines Resort there are patches of colour crimson in the mountain ash and blueberries, yellow in the white birch and bronzes in the beech, shrubs and grasses. A quarter of the ferns are now golden yellow with pockets of brown. More than half the Japanese maple is a bright magenta. Overlooking the shoreline, the grasses are taking on the tones of autumn. Leaves are starting to drop from the trees.

Smith's Cove: Almost a quarter of the area is a patchwork of autumn colours. Red maple, sugar maple and pin-cherry are beginning to turn fiery-red, while white and grey birch, wild pear and maple are changing to ochre and yellow. Bracken and fern are completely cast in sienna. Cones from white and red spruce, bracken fern and alder are a tawny-brown and the horse chestnut leaves have turned brown and fallen off. The ash is becoming yellow and purple.

• Site 6, Bear River: Along the hills of the river there are patches of red and orange in the sugar maple, pin-cherry, staghorn sumac and choke-cherries. Ferns and grasses are becoming cast in gold. The best place to view the river and the fall colours is from the Purdy-Chute Road leading into Bear River.

Greenwich: Deep Hollow Road Ravine reports a smattering of yellows, oranges and reds scattered amidst a dominant green background. The white ash is beginning to turn purple and yellow. More colour is evident the closer you get to the community of White Rock, especially reds and oranges. Red maple, sugar maple and shadbush are starting to turn red and orange while maple, birch and white ash are starting to go yellow, with some amber in the birch.

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

Saturday, Sept. 30, is Wilf Carter Night in Canning at the Lion's Hall with a first-class collection of vocal and instrumental performers in a 100 per cent Wilf Carter concert.

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 in the First World War.

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

REGION 2: Glooscap and Sunrise Trails

Autumn is advancing in strides along the Glooscap and Sunrise trails where in some places 25 per cent of the forests, shrubs and grasses have taken on bright hues.

• Site 13, Gore: There are patches of colour at Courthouse Hill with half the sugar maple, red maple, pin-cherry and blueberry a resplendent scarlet. Aspen, ferns and grasses are casting a sienna tint throughout the area.

• Site 15, Burntcoat Head Park: Flower gardens are still resplendent and there are a magnificent variety of apples. Orange birch and maple line the driveway into the park and the ash trees are laden with berries. The view of the mountains rising from the North Shore of the Minas Basin is a delicate shade of yellow ochre.

• Site 16, Shubenacadie: Behind the church toward the Shubenacadie River, about 15 per cent of the red maple and sugar maple have changed to red and orange while the rest of the forest is almost all green. Some aspen are showing a nice yellow.

• Site 19, Kirkhill: Just a few bright scarlet maples and grasses to report.

Cape d'Or: Autumn is just beginning to tint the landscape with mountain-ash and blueberries turning red, sugar maples to orange, and white birch, yellow birch and aspen going yellow. Shrubs, ferns and grasses are becoming washed in shades of colour daubed with brown alder.

• Site 21, Amherst: The red mud at low tide is contrasting nicely with the marsh grasses which are beginning to show shades of sepia.

• Site 22, Fenwick: The vista from the ridge is aglow with half the sugar maple, red maple and blueberries cast in red and the white birch and yellow birch trees becoming bright yellow.

• Site 23, Wentworth: The highest points of the mountain are awash in amber yellow, while below the softwood is mixed with 10 per cent gold from the yellow birch and beech trees. Elsewhere pockets of colour are starting with the sugar maple, red maple and mountain-ash turning red, chokeberries becoming orange, and alders going brown.

• Site 24, Wallace: The area is just starting to get under way with up to 10 per cent of the colours changed.

• Site 25, Balmoral Mills: The trees are starting to show some real colour changes with reds and oranges in the sugar maple and purple in the beech. A bright patch of glowing orange leaves stand out against the surrounding greens of the forest. A kingfisher has been visiting the pond for the last few days.

Nuttby Mountain: Autumn colours are even across the site as the predominately sugar maple forest is changing to a light yellow brown. There are bright patches of orange and red from the red maple on the wetter sites within the forest. The forest has reached 25 per cent of its fall colours.

• Site 26, Mount Thom: The blueberry barrens are changing to a burnished red and the sugar maple is becoming yellow-green while ferns and grasses are turning rusty-brown.

• Site 27, Greenhill: About 10 percent of the hardwoods around the panoramic view of farmlands and Pictou Harbour have begun to turn. Some red maple, sugar maple and pin-cherry have become bright red, there is an assortment of yellows in the yellow birch and white ash, and the grasses are becoming brown.

• Site 28, Marshy Hope: There's a growing cast of ruddy colour to the vegetation throughout the steeply-sided valley.

Enjoy two days of quilt sales at the Tatamagouche Oktoberfest, Friday, Sept. 29, and Saturday, Sept. 30. Included will be wall hangings, placemats, bags and vests.

Come see an exhibit of art depicting scenes of a Pictou County autumn at the Pictou County Art Autumn in the Hector Exhibit Centre in Pictou, from Oct. 4 to Oct. 29.

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

REGION 3: Cape Breton Island

The bountiful brilliance of autumn is advancing through Cape Breton Island beginning with some showy splashes and tints of colour.

• Site 31, Mabou Salt Marsh: The marsh grass is now a warm rusty- orange and many of the cattails have turned brown. Surrounding the marsh, the odd hardwood is ruddy or showing some gold.

• Site 32, Margaree Valley: No evidence yet of the approaching autumn colours.

• Site 33, Cap Le-Moine: Lots of red rosehips and the birch is continuing to yellow. About one-fifth of the mountain-ash are laden with vermilion berries and the hawthorn have loads of berries. Tall grasses are bronzing up and the salt marshes are luminous in tones of gold. Purple lavender, silver rod and butter and eggs are thick along the shore. The countryside is dotted with red pin-cherry and the apple trees are displaying a harvest of luscious fruit.

• Site 34, French Mountain: The bracken fern is changing from yellow to rust, orange and brown. Birches are slowly yellowing while the evening primrose is still in bloom, and poison ivy is spreading a scarlet carpet along the highway and among the yellow grasses of the shore at La Block. Cinnamon fern is deepening from shades of yellow to orange, and red wood laurel hugs the Cabot Trail descending French Mountain.

• Site 35, Pleasant Bay: At the base of the mountain almost half the birch has advanced to yellow. Hillsides have gone to magenta with the blueberries and still in bloom are the fall dandelion, goldenrod and New York aster, and the knap weed pods have darkened. Huckleberry on the barrens have begun to go rusty- coloured, and pearly everlasting is white and abundant along the roadside which is also dotted with the blooms of purple willow herb. Sugar maple and ash are only beginning to reveal a sprinkle of crimson through the Grand Anse valley.

• Site 36, Cape North: Some dramatic splashes of orange, yellow and vermilion are highlighted against the lush green evergreen backdrop.

• Site 38, Kelly's Mountain: From St. Anne's Lookoff, Seal Island is showing a big change from last week with pockets of splendid colour showing. Kelly's Mountain is still mostly green, with reds and yellows starting in the maple and birch.

• Site 39, Long Island: The panoramic view is daubed with beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and brown.

• Site 40, Kennington Cove: Shrubs, ferns and grasses along the storm-etched shore are becoming bronzed.

• Site 41, North Side East Bay: A cheerful two-fifths of autumn colour is evident with red maple, sugar maple and choke-cherries turning warm orange, and shrubs and grasses becoming copper- brown.

• Site 42, Irish Cove Scenic Look-off and Provincial Park: The vistas are becoming sprinkled with the colours of fall. Red maple and pin-cherry are starting to turn flame-red, while sugar maple and choke-cherry are tinged with orange, and the shrubs, ferns and grasses are going a joyful golden-brown.

• Site 45, Marble Mountain: The spectacular slopes are sporting a few brilliant red maples and there is a pronounced shift in the colours of the beech, sugar maple and birch to a yellow-green.

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

Glimpse living history celebrating the culture of the Gaelic- speaking Scots who settled in Nova Scotia at the Nova Scotia Highland Village in Iona. The village is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., until Oct. 15.

REGION 4: Marine Drive and Halifax-Dartmouth

Striking autumn colours are emerging all over the Marine Drive and in the Halifax-Dartmouth area.

• Site 47, Boylston Provincial Park: Scarlet and gold are beginning to show among the red maple, sugar maple, mountain-ash, pin-cherry and choke-cherry throughout the park, while the opposite shore of Chedabucto Bay is doing the same. Shrubs and grasses are starting to turn bronze and the wild apple trees are sporting red and yellow fruit.

• Site 48, Lundy: Patches of grasses and shrubs in the Lundy Barrens are beginning to grow yellow, red and purple while small clumps of red maple, mountain-ash and pin-cherry are beginning to brighten to orange, red and yellow. Blueberry and rhodora are a wash of purple.

• Site 49, Stillwater: A quarter of the sugar maple, red maple and shrubs are creating patches of scarlet and yellow, mostly in the higher hills. White birch, yellow birch, aspen, shrubs, ferns and grasses are becoming tinged with auburn and chestnut.

• Site 50, Liscombe Mills: Early maple and roadside brush are tinged with maroon, and some maple, ferns and grasses are tinted orange while the white and yellow birch is beginning to go yellow.

• Site 54, Clam Harbour Provincial Park: Bracken is a rich sienna in places. Mountain-ash berries, staghorn sumac, lowbush cranberries and blueberries are bright red and the grasses of the marsh are starting to turn almost pink in some light. Crisp blue skies and cool in the mornings.

• Site 56, Elderbank: The white ash is almost completely yellow. Red maple staghorn sumac and blueberry is one-fifth radiant red, and the sugar maple is starting to turn yellow. Elm, white birch and aspen are becoming patched with gold, and almost half the alder, shrubs, ferns and grasses are a glowing bronze.

• Site 59, Mount Uniacke: Up to a quarter of the trees and plants around the walking trails are in autumn hues of red, orange, yellow and brown.

• Site 60, Halifax: At Frog Pond it's still almost all green with the wetland maples turning from maroon to crimson. Red maple, sugar maple and cattails have just begun to change while the pine cones and needles are starting to fall.

Go to the Wonderful World of Pets in Halifax to see hundreds of pets, demonstrations, exhibits, competitions, entertainment and a petting zoo on Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1.

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

There is lots happening at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. Family campfire nights feature stories and songs and take place on Thursday, Sept. 31, from 7 p.m to 8 p.m., and on Thursday, Oct. 5, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Also view beautiful photos featuring fall colours and autumn foliage by award-winning photographer Stephen Patterson, daily until Oct. 31.

REGION 5: Lighthouse Route

The Lighthouse Route is just beginning to simmer in widespread autumn tones.

• Site 62, New Ross: The first good frost of the season has occurred so the colours will start changing soon. The odd maple is showing brilliant red leaves and there's a bit of yellow popping up. Visit the Ross Farm Museum and enjoy afternoon tea in Rose Bank Cottage, or take a horse-drawn wagon ride over the site.

East River: Mountain-ash is beginning to turn a golden-yellow, and almost a quarter of the maples are a dazzling red.

Tantallon: Shrubs and grasses are becoming copper-coloured and there are spots of scarlet and saffron in the trees.

Lunenburg: A sprinkling of colour change with yellows and reds just barely distinguishable. The dogwood and choke-cherries are both ripe.

• Site 66, Milton: The spires of the two white country churches are reflected in the gently flowing Mersey River. Fabulous views, cool mornings, brilliant blue water and skies. The bottoms of the maple, white ash and shrubs are becoming rosy.

• Site 68, Kejimkujik National Park: Up to 15 per cent of the fall foliage has changed with some groves of red maple a full blazing splendor and lovely against the towering white pine. Some reds and oranges in the rest of the red maple, Virginia creeper and poison ivy while the aspen, blue-jointed grass, other sedge and some ferns are going yellow. Cinnamon, sensitive and royal ferns along the river's edge are showing some sepia and in some places more than half have changed. There are some wonderful scarlet red maple on the Rogers Brook and Mersey River Trails.

Scarecrows are popping up all over town at the Great Scarecrow Festival and Antique Fair in Mahone Bay. This event takes place from Friday, Sept. 29, to Sunday, Oct. 1. Fun for the whole family with moonlight graveyard tours, musical variety shows, children's activities, square dancing, fiddling and more.

See animals and winning 4-H exhibit projects at the Nova Scotia Show in Bridgewater, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

Come to the Hooked Rug and Quilt Show and Sale featuring the work of Nova Scotia artisans at Black Point, between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1.

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

For more information please call the toll-free line at 1-877-353- LEAF (5323).