While filing this local image we realized that we didn’t show and talk about Tamarack Trees when they were at their golden peaks here in late October and early November.
Now that we’ve had a few freezing nights (and today’s morning that is still below freezing as we speak), the trees’ supple branches are almost bare
In the summer, at a distance, it’s hard to tell Tamaracks from Spruces and Firs. They’re all green and all have cones. But, in late fall and early winter, only the Tamarack needles turn into yellow fluorescence:
Now, Tamarack needles are dropping like golden rain.
This tree also is called a Larch, but Tamarack seems to be the most popular name for them here. That name is the Algonquin word for “snowshoe wood,” which is what the tree’s flexible wood trunk and branches could become in the hands of a good craftsman. (Brooklin, Maine)