A Fall Walk

Yesterday we took our fall nature walk. It was a risky move on my part...it was pretty windy, cloudy and cold. And John was working. But we'd been trying to take our fall walk for a few weeks now, and I figured that it was as nice a day as we would probably see in November. It really wasn't too bad once we got moving, and I intended to keep the walk short for Tess's sake. But...we got lost. Maria wanted to take a leg of the trail I had never been on before. She had taken it with John at one point and said it was really interesting. And it was. We saw a stone foundation for a log cabin that used to be on that spot, and further on the foundation for the family's chicken house, and even further on the foundation for their pig house. It was pretty cool to stand in those woods and imagine what it must have been like to live in that spot before the built a golf course on the other side of the stream. I wondered who the family was, how many children they had, and what brought them to these woods from wherever they came from.

Finally it was getting later, and colder. We pressed onward. Maria said the trail would turn around and come out at the parking lot. We walked. And walked. And walked. We walked so long that even Jack, my brave outdoorsman who never gets enough of hiking, was asking to go home. And then the trail dead-ended. I almost cried. We had to turn around and walk allll the way back to that old cabin foundation. The sun was setting by the time we reached it. There we found another leg where the trail did, in fact, turn back towards the parking lot. Jack was exhausted and poking along, my back was aching with Tess on board in her pack, and we were all cold. I was glad I had brought my cell phone just in case I needed to call for help, because it was nearly dark by the time we reached our van. Tess's feet and hands were purple and still cold when I curled her up to nurse at home. My shoulders still hurt. But hey! I got pictures!! :)




















Here's our findings on our seasons table, in that basket on the right. It's not a great picture...the sun coming in that window messed things up for me. I've not posted pictures of my new seasons table before. It's very modest so far. I'm slowly collecting things to use on it, seasonal bowls and covers and fun things to decorate with, seasonal books, etc. The yellow basket in the middle has holy cards for All Saints Day, and there's a stack of the Father Lovasik Saint books next to it, and some seasonal picture books on the other end. When it becomes too cluttered, the kids quit paying attention to it. There's more books in bins underneath, but I just want a few things out at a time.


Here's what's in the basket.