Well, I’ve been home for 61 days from work and I hope you are all doing well (staying sane). I wonder if In a year or three if someone might read this and wonder why I was home for so many days… Today I’m writing about being on the Cusp of Winter in Autumn and finding Snowliage. In the last two years (2018 & 2019) there have been snowliage events in mid-October.

But these snowliage events are not everywhere. They are usually localized to either geography or even elevation. The snow events sometimes happen more at higher elevation like on Mount Washington where there is no fall foliage so does that really count? Maybe, maybe not. But to me, if You capture snow and fall colors in the same image it is snowliage. Above is one of my versions of snowliage.

A friend of mine (Chris Whiton) took an epic shot from down in the valley of Crawford Notch looking up at the top of Mount Washington. Hillsides of fall colors in the foreground with the white icing on the cake at the top of the mountain. (ask him to show it to you…)

The Cusp of Winter

The cusp of winter is that shadowy period when fall is not quite over and the weather turns suddenly bringing a coating of snow to mix with your fall colors.

Sometimes it doesn’t stick around and sometimes as you will see from the images below on Oct 18th, 2018, there was a bit more.

The afternoon before the pictures in this article were taken (17 Oct), I was interviewed on AutumnWatch which was a BBC/PBS joint production. They set up shop at Camp Deerwood in Squam Lake New Hampshire, a boy’s camp just above the lake. In the image above you can see a bit of what was going on behind the camera and if you didn’t see the interview, here is a link to the interview on my youtube channel.

During the interview, I showed some of my photographic prints, and Chris the photographer interviewing me was fascinated by my capture of what I called snowliage. (the image I showed him is at the top) We didn’t have time to go into it but snowliage is when the autumn season is close to being over (but isn’t) and Father Winter decides to make an appearance anyway. So you get to have the bright reds, orange, and yellows all with a coating of snow.

The BBC got us a room for the night down Route 3 at the Boulders Motel and Cottages. The next morning I woke up at the break of dawn and I could see what wasn’t apparent the previous night, that we sat on the edge of Squam Lake. I got warmly dressed and grabbed my camera gear and went outside.

I almost changed my mind at this point because it was VERY cold… I had not watched the weather reports and I didn’t know what this day held for us. I went down to the lake’s edge and looked for photographic opportunities. Red and gold leaves littered the sand of the shore but the trees still had a lot more to give us.

Before I went upstairs it began to snow and I got to witness “Snowliage” in person. It would be weeks before it would stick around and it was primarily here at the southern feet of the White Mountains and points north in higher elevations. We found that Just 44 miles north this morning the snow cannons making snow on the ski routes at Cannon Mountain Ski Resort.

As we headed home we stopped at the Squam River covered bridge. Not a trace of snow in this area where just north they were making snow. This is the way of travel in New England. I have often said that if you suddenly find yourself without any fall color, drive a few more miles north or south and you “may” pick it up again.

The Routes for these images today are Route 3, Route 116, Route 18, and all are in New Hampshire. The rest of the afternoon we visited western New Hampshire and on the way home, we jumped on Route 93, where I snapped this shot of Mount Lafayette.

So to recap, a bitterly cold morning, and a morning that was overcast to partly cloudy and a sunny afternoon drive home with beautiful views of the Mountains of New Hampshire. I don’t know about you but I would consider this fully successful.

To top it off, here is a video/slideshow of my morning at Squam Lake. Take a few minutes to listen to music and enjoy some snowliage at the lake.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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