It's the time of the season....

Guess what today is folks? Why it's the first day of autumn! And as I've stated before - I love this season. I love the colors of the leaves, the crispness of the air, the golden amber hued light, faded sweaters that you know like a best friend, incredible sunsets, mums apples and pumpkins, Halloween and Thanksgiving… I could go on and on.

So, on that note - here are two wonderful sites that I have found online that specialize in Autumn courtesy of the USDA Forest service. The first one is the Fall Color Page for 2005.

http://www.fs.fed.us/news/fallcolors/

This will show you the progress of Fall Colors by region and there is even a Fall Color Hotline!

The next is an informative page also by the USDA Forest Service that explains everything that you would like to know about these colors entitled "WHY LEAVES CHANGE COLORS"

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/misc/leaves/leaves.htm

Now onto something different yet equally beautiful…



It seems that experts are close to proving that the above painting entitled "Mary Magdalene" and painted in 1515, may have been actually painted by the master Leonardo da Vinci. As an artist, I find this fascinating. You can read more about the story by clicking here. And while you’re at it, make sure and read this highly interesting article from UK’s The Guardian entitled "Art detective exposes hidden images to fuel Da Vinci Code conspiracies". Be sure to view the PDF document attached to that article to actually see the amazing sketches previously hidden for the last 500 or so years! Amazing!