Geoff Duncan

This time of year I get exercise by raking and gathering leaves. I truly prefer dry leaves to soaked ones—wet leaves weigh about five times as much as dry ones, in my experience, and I wouldn't want to get too healthy too quickly. Might throw people off.

But despite Seattle's rainy autumns, we do get the occasional ray of sunlight and, sometimes, the occasional burst of seasonal color.

As much as I dislike the dark, damp winters around here that are punctuated by bare twigs and a perpetual film of decomposing schmutz covering virtually every outdoor surface…these bursts of color are all the more precious for being so brief.