The Leaves Are Not A-Changin'

This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

I walk or ride my bike through Central Park everyday. And this year the trees are late. I mean the trees are late in changing color. It is mid-November, and the trees are just now at the peak of color change.

I'm not the only one who has noticed nature's tardiness. During television coverage of last week's New York City marathon, Al Trautwig said the same thing. Usually by marathon time there is a little color left, though most of the leaves have already fallen!

Leaf peepers in Vermont have said for years that the peak time is the second week in October. Now some are saying, better come a little later!

Climate change naysayers bellow "humbug!" but there are changes on the other side of the calendar, too. The Tulip festival in Pella, Iowa, was always held during the second weekend in May. That is, until someone figured out that in recent years the blooms were all gone by then. So they moved Tulip Time up a week. More than the times are a-changin'.