New England Diary

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‘Overturns laws of space and light’

Early fall Foliage in the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, on the eastern shore (the Vermont side) of Lake Champlain

What’s left of late-fall foliage outside Jennings Hall, Bennington (Vt.) college's music building

— Photo by Jared C. Benedict

“In the same way that serious cold seems to invoke a new set of physical laws — altering the way sound carries, making the air less elastic — the {autumn} coloring of maples and hickories and oaks overturns laws of space and light that have been in force since spring.’’

Michael Pollan (born 1955) in Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education. A graduate of Vermont’s Bennington College, he’s an author, journalist and professor best known for food-and-environment-related writing.