Dear Editor:

From where I work, we've been admiring the gorgeous tree changing colors on the Library lawn across the street. People have been stopping to take photos for over a week. It was hard to concentrate on work at one point this afternoon when a husband and wife and their very little girl spent at least an hour playing in the leaves underneath it.

Mom was taking photos as Dad kept scooping the beautiful orange, red and yellow leaves into a pile, tossing them high over his daughter's head and watching them sprinkle down over her and back to the ground again.

At one point, Dad covered himself in the leaves leaving only his feet sticking out … and he waited for a full minute to surprise his little one when he leaped out from under the pile while tossing leaves in the air to her great delight; Mom, all the while, was focusing her camera to capture the perfect shot.

At two different times, two different couples stopped to take pictures of them as they played. Then we watched as one couple walked up over the lawn and offered to take a picture of all three of them in the pile of leaves. Dad, at this point, had already partially covered Mom and daughter and then when the couple offered to take the family photo, he sat down and quickly covered his own legs as the three of them snuggled for a shot.

When they were done, Dad tossed the leaves around the bottom of the tree again so that the ground underneath the tree was just as beautiful as when they had first arrived. All the while, I wished that Kevin Burnham would come around the corner and capture it all with his own camera for the local paper.

I guess I really love fall on days like this, but I loved even more the time that this Dad and Mom spent with their little girl in the leaves … unhurried, with love and such delight. Dad appeared to have had even more fun than his daughter.

Sue Tilton Hepburn
Boothbay Harbor