Early Fall, leaves are just starting to turn

I live in western North Carolina; in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. People come from miles and miles around to see our 'fall color.' They come in station wagons with their kids, on tour buses, and dragging their travel trailers. Motorcyclists seem particularly partial to "leaf peeping." My point here is that for us, fall color is a REALLY big deal. But unlike other 'big deals' like Christmas or Thanksgiving, we don't have a specific date circled on the calendar for the day the trees will start displaying their beautiful multi-hued extravaganza. We just have to sort of guess. 

I confess that I am getting pretty excited about the upcoming fall foliage, rather like a kid looking forward to Halloween. So I ventured out today, even though I knew it was still really too early, just to look for SIGNS that the colors were on their way. And I saw some! The first picture here is of a Japanese Maple in Bullington Gardens, just outside of Hendersonville, NC. 

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