Why autumn this year is more spectacular than usual

This autumn has been quite spectacular here in the southwest. Vibrant colours that I associate with parts of the US. The last time I remember it being so colourful was the autumn of 2003 - after we'd had a hot and dry summer.

The colours we see are always there but are usually masked by the green chlorophyll. It's only in the autumn, when the days are shorter and cooler and the trees stop making clorophyll, that we see them.

The red and purple anthocyanins and yellow and orange carotenoids come to the fore and we see the hidden colours of the leaves.

Apparently, the best conditions for intense leaf color to develop are dry, sunny days followed by cool (but not freezing) nights. This autumn certainly has been dry and not cold. And so that's why this autumn seems more spectacular than usual.

The real Chef Boyardee

Chef Boyardee was a real man whose name was Ettore (Hector) Boiardi. He was an immigrant to the US from Italy. He was head chef at the New York Plaza Hotel and catered a presidential wedding reception. His main claim to fame was his pasta sauce which was in such high demand at his restaurant that he set up a factory to make it. He marketed it under the name Chef Boy-Ar-Dee.

He eventually sold out to American Home Foods for tidy sum.

And to think that all this time I thought that Chef Boyardee was as fictitious as Aunt Jemima. I still won't eat that stuff though. I bet he's turn in his grave to see what it's become.