When I was an elementary student at what was then called the Springside School for Girls, our teacher (Mrs. Williams? It's been a while.) introduced the class to a science unit about trees. With the glorious Wissahickon Valley as our laboratory, we were told to find various living examples, identify them by their habitat, leaf or needle shape, and determine whether they were deciduous or evergreen.

Armed with a small — maybe 5”x3” — book called "Master Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by Their Leaves," by May Thielgaard Watts, we set out along the creek and into the woodlands. Like tiny botany-minded Nancy Drews, we followed the book's clues until we solved the case.

Pick a specimen, examine its leaf. "If the leaves or buds grow opposite, go below.  ... If the leaves or buds grow alternately, go to page 21." Are the leaves lobed? Are the lobes V shaped? Veined, coarsely toothed? You might have yourself a Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum)!

How do I remember any of this? Because I loved that unit so much I kept the book; those sense memories have lasted a lifetime.

Mix the excitement of a new school year with the spongy bounce of the forestÕs umber carpet, the musty scent of humus, and the texture of gritty creekside sediment on fingertips. A few were even lucky enough to bring back a crumbly, sheer sheet of mica passed around like treasure.

That's what it's like to experience autumn along the Wissahickon.

The best season

In the offices of the Chestnut Hill Local, publisher of Wissahickon magazine, it's universally agreed autumn is the best season.

At Woodmere, fall brings the cherished tradition of its architect-designed straw maze. But this year also marks the opening of its brand-new Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education. As reporter Buffy Gorrilla learned, it's a space certain to cement the museum's place among the region's must-see cultural sites.

To the Forbidden Drive walkers profiled in Kristin Holmes' story, fall means another year of joining together in the early mornings to watch the leaves change color and fall beneath their feet.

To Germantown's unique bookshop and cafe, Uncle Bobbie's, Carla Robinson discovered this fall means an eye toward the future with the goal of expansion and a skyrocketing national profile, thanks to boldface book launch partners such as Dawn Staley and Kamala Harris.

Shopping opportunity

For shoppers along the Avenue, it means the opportunity to get cozy with leaf-peeping colorways, from nut-brown men's leather boots handmade in the U.S.A. to throw pillows from India accented in saffron and teal. Ask a shop owner their favorite in-store seasonal item and the answer will likely surprise and delight.

To Laurel Hill's visitors, it means the return of "spooky season" and the Market of the Macabre. The site's residents — as far as we can tell — remain still, but reporter Clark Perks listened as their monuments spoke volumes on their behalf.

Philadelphia's performance lovers know that when Labor Day ends, Fringe begins. This year, the city's northwest gets a bigger share of the excitement than ever before with an expansion of programs at its Circus Campus. Chestnut Hill Local summer intern Lucy Tobier (Swarthmore College) went behind the scenes to do some clowning around and fact finding.

Finally, autumn is a great time to hit the road and head for the hills. It's harvest time, and as writer Susan Schaefer saw firsthand, the Lebanon Valley offers some of the prettiest landscapes, richest history, and finest produce around.

We hope this issue of the magazine takes you on a journey through places and people you know and love, and introduces you to some you'd like to know better. In this, nature's (arguably) best season, the Chestnut Hill Local and the editors and writers of this magazine wish you the joy of discovery and exploration — much like what I experienced on the banks of the Wissahickon all those years ago.

Wendy Rosenfield