from Chris

During the week, I drive north from Fredericksburg to western New York, where I teach at a small university. Autumn hit its full peak there last week. Although I saw it coming for weeks, it still always seems to creep up too fast!

In Fredericksburg, though, autumn comes a full month later and can last well into November.

That means the hills of western New York are covered in a calico blanket even as central Virginia remains verdant …