AUTUMN PEAKED LAST WEEK with the most spectacular display of reds and yellows and burnt oranges that I have ever seen. I mean ever. It seems like we wait later and later each fall for the colors to finally come alive on the trees around Philadelphia, and this year in wasn't until November that the trees decided to give it up. And, boy, did they surrender.

For awhile there it looked like were were going to have a lousy autumn foliage season. Early on, well into October, the trees that were changing seemed to go directly from lush green to dry brown. But that was only a prelude to the spectacular that arrived with a "can you beat this?" last week in October followed by an un-freakin'-believable first week in November. It was as if the trees were saluting the Phillies and Barack Obama in one orgasm of the brightest colors I've ever seen. Ever.

This is a photo I took Tuesday at Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain Township when it was already past prime time.