At this time of year, tree branches are arching across the street and their boughs are touching each other in friendly farewell. They have become a canopy of gold to walk under, and when their leaves tumble down onto the little roads on the Island, in place of their surfaces of sand and dirt, they suddenly are paved with gold.

Closer to the ground, sumac and huckleberry and poison ivy are, variously, purple, gold, yellow, ruby red or sometimes they are still green. In thickets, the bittersweet is beginning to burst into red and yellow flowerets.