"This is my favorite time of year--I think I love it because it is so beautiful and it's so short-lived--I have to really take the time to enjoy it because tomorrow the leaves may all be off the trees!"
The other day Kris made this comment that got me thinking. The leaves are close to peak right now and any day, a rain could come and wash all of the colors away. So Ward and I decided it was time to take a hike at a local park. Thanks for giving us the nudge we needed, Kris. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Here are some pictures from our walk today.
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| Monarch Way Station. This area is maintained specifically for monarchs. The white "flowers" are seed heads from their host plant, milkweed. |
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| This pond was created to teach about pond habitats. |
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| This bench was made by local school kids from trash and earth. The details were really interesting. |
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| We watched activity along the lake seeing fishing, kayaking, and good old-fashioned throwing rocks in the water. |
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| After hiking around the lake for a while, we headed up the hill to find another trail. |
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| Ward wanted to explore this trail because it winds up close to where he works. |
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| One of the interesting sights along the way. |
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| We crossed a stream. |
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| We saw the foundation of a mill built in 1810. The mill was used both as a saw mill and a grist mill. |
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| Ward walking along the boardwalk through the swampy area. |
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| Back in the parking lot, we saw this tree being photographed many times including several family portraits. |
Oh how beautiful. It is a wonderful time of year. The day after I took those photos of my maple, we had rain but also kind of extreme winds and a good share of the maple leaves are now on the ground. So it good to enjoy the color and beauty while we can see it. The beauty in your photos is breath taking. There are bad things happening in the world, I know, and harsh realities to life, but its so easy to forget when surrounded in beauty.
ReplyDeleteThe outdoors always picks me up (unless it's really cold) and I do forget some of my problems when I'm out there.
DeleteGlad you and Ward made it into the Great Outdoors to enjoy the sights. I think the word I was looking for the day I made that comment is "ephemeral". (It took me several days to find the right word ... Slow Brain Syndrome!). The beauty of autumn is ephemeral. We have to grab at those moments of beauty and enjoy them to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed my ride home from work today--bright blue skies, the sun on the trees--by next week, I think most of our leaves will be down.
Blue sky, sun on colorful leaves--the perfect combination. We're having more rain later in the week and that may be the final blow for many trees. Ephemeral--a good word to describe it all.
DeleteYour photos are just gorgeous and I envy you being able to enjoy it. Our leaves are just beginning to turn, but we have having downpours right now so I am pretty sure the leaves are just going to be knocked to the ground without ever turing their full color. Oh well! Such is life!
ReplyDeleteAre you getting rain from the Pacific hurricane? Maybe your leaves are still green enough that most will survive the rain. I always hate rains in the spring too when they bring down all of the blossoms from the trees.
DeleteOh my goodness, I love the colors of autumn but it's that tree trunk that catches my eye rom your collection this week. I love unique tree formations.
ReplyDeleteAutumn is the most beautiful time of year although I would love to find a way to mix the colors with a bit more of the warmer temps I prefer. I was out looking at my silver maple one day and noticed the leaves had barely changed, the next day the leaves had all changed and I had a nice carpet of fallen leaves.
I like tree and trunk shapes too. I may start a picture collection of them. I'm not sure what was wrong with this tree, but it sure was interesting looking.
DeleteSuch beautiful colors. We rarely see change of seasons like this. Lucky ya'll! Thanks for taking us along :).
ReplyDeleteHaving lived along the Gulf Coast for 15 years, I remember well the more subtle change of seasons. I really missed four distinct seasons when I lived there.
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