Driving through the mountains of West
Virginia in October affords a gorgeous view around every bend. We normally drive through that area in September of December, so recently when we made our trip in October, we were taken aback. It was breathtaking, like an expansive plush, textured carpet of reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and browns stretching across each valley. Gorgeous!
There are certain maple trees—and I’m not sure what kind they are—that,
rather than having all their leaves change color at the same time, make
their transformation from green to red one section at a time. It’s so
interesting to me that each fall, the same area of the tree begins the
shift. Fascinating!But my very favorite color of the fall is that of the vibrant, red leaves of the euonymus bush, the “fire bush.” Wikipedia describes the euonymus bush as “exhibiting very bright autumnal colors.” But, in my opinion, “red” or “bright” are not enough for this exquisite and very distinctive color. A Sherwin Williams color paint color comes close: “cerise.” To be honest, I’d never heard of cerise before. Have you? “Cerise” is a French word meaning cherry. According to “the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color, it is pointed out that the color cerise has always been depicted as a somewhat bluer color than the actual color of a fresh uncooked cherry, which is denoted by a different redder color called cherry red. Basically, the color cerise is a depiction of the somewhat bluer color of a cooked cherry, such as the cherries in a cherry pie.” Apparently, Crayola has a crayon this color. Even these descriptions don’t do the color justice. Dazzling!
What a wonderful God we have to have designed this passage of the trees from their green vivacity in summer to their quiet dormancy in winter. Could it be that all these colors are merely for our enjoyment? I, for one, believe it to be so.
