As the snow gently falls outside and the world nearby is covered in white, it is a good time to reflect on the year that has been and the new year that lies ahead. Here at the Aspens Lodge, each season brings its own special kind of beauty–and a beautiful year it has been–blessed as we were with a bit more moisture in 2022 than in the previous couple of years. Lush shades of green in the pastures and on the hillsides lasted longer into the summer than usual. Wildflowers bloomed in abundance. Fall colors blazed brilliantly, if but for a short time, and now winter has descended with a cloak of white providing snow, aplenty, for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or snowmobiling. What ever the season, there is a reason to be outside fully immersed in the beauty that surrounds.
The Golden Season
During this season, the late afternoon sun imbues the changing leaves on the aspen trees that surround The Aspens Lodge with a mesmerizing quality. The hillside seems alive with its shimmering carpet of sunlit yellow. Deer graze peacefully in the yard seemingly unaware that hunting season is about to start. If you are lucky, you may see a blue jay make a brief appearance flitting from tree to tree highlight, its brilliant blue highlighted by the backdrop of gold. In the larger world, these are tumultuous times, but here at least nature has her act together.
It would be wonderful if this magical season could last longer than it does, but nature has its rules. As the poet Robert Frost noted long ago,
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
For those searching for fall colors, options abound nearby: Consider driving over the Buford-New Castle Road; hiking up the South Fork of the White River, trail running or riding horseback into the Marvine Lakes, kayaking on Trapper’s Lake, and driving over Ripple Creek Pass.