"There are no calendar dates to mark the beginning or end of stick season. Its advent–as poets, artists, and observers have noted–is unhurried, filling the void of autumn’s passing foliage. But its end is sudden, vanishing with the first lasting snow. In north-central Vermont, we usually greet stick season in late October and bid it farewell in the waning days of November.

Stick season embodies two natures. The first, as a postscript to fall, gives us pause after the fame and glory of a jeweled autumn. Leaves may yet be found, branch-clinging, waving but unwavering, until at last their grounded fate is sealed. Its second nature, as a preamble to winter, foretastes the cold and envisions a whiter world. Stick season embraces snow–but only the irresolute–which shall be gone tomorrow.

Locals cherish this time when the demands of busier seasons are left behind and the rush of winter is not yet here. Still, there are chores and holidays, harvests and hunting seasons. In respite, we reflect on the passing of seasons and gaze upon an unadorned landscape and its people." – Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers Photography • Stick Season Project

The Stick Season Project