Tam's Patch

The leaves are finally starting to turn, on the mountainsides and in my neighborhood. Is it just me, or have they really been taking their time getting to it this year? When our kids were youngsters, we used to set aside a day or two to appreciate the autumn colors before they were quickly replaced by grey and white. We’d take a drive – and sometimes a picnic – into the canyons, to spot red sumac and yellow aspen. Or we’d wade through drifts of oak leaves on the green inside President’s Circle at the University of Utah. Several buildings there have been standing more than a century, and many of the trees have kept them company for nearly that long. I read somewhere about a study that showed surgery patients who could see trees through their hospital windows recovered twice as fast as those who couldn’t. How much better for your health would it be to actually walk among them?