Fall Walk

I went for a walk in the woods last week.  The same woods I went to last Fall (here is the post).  It was the same park, same time, same season, and same trail.  Yet the view couldn't have been more different.    At first I was disappointed because I thoughly enjoyed looking at the moss beds and mushrooms, but I found other things this time I didn't see before.  Leaves in every shade of red, orange and yellow and squirrels devouring mountains of acorns.  

I'm not feeling too wordy today, so I will just let you look.  

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Fall!

acorns

apple cider

autumn  apples

bonfire    boots

brown  corn

cool weather

cozy

crow crisp air

full moon

leaves  hot cocoa

fog  sweaters

harvest

Halloween  hot tea

Pumpkins    leaves

frost

Busy Life = Crazy Person!

Well, I'm a little behind folks!  I'm crazy, disturbingly, insanely busy (and I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel).  

Ian Michael has finished his track season.  That is something to check off, right?  

Emma Grace is done with soccer (probably for life according to her).  Another thing to check!

School is nearly over..... check!

However, in less than a month, they (meaning Ryan and Ian) will begin weightlifting.  

........ as long as I'm alive, weightlifting will be a strange word to me when it is connected to my children.

Weightlifting is a word for MEN!  

My boys will always be BOYS!

End of story!

Ryan will begin playing baseball with a "semi-local" team.  

Besides my children's very busy schedules, I am starting a 9 week photography class.  Actually, it started this very morning!  I am printing out the materials as I write to you.  

I have high expectations with this class.  The instructor is OVER THE MOON talented!  She is actually in my side bar.  Her name is Karen Russell.  I will use this blog to document my progress and keep you posted.  

So.... so.... so.... excited about this, guys!  

We have been doing a fair amount of home improvement.  I intend to share it with you soon.  

We are beginning to prepare for a family vacation to Jamacia.  I am chomping at the bit for this friends!  Like..... chomping hard enough to bite through a log chain!

I haven't scrapbooked or made a single thing with paper in over a month.  This maybe a record!!!  I want to get into my crafty room, but I'm running to and fro, and cannot make myself take the time to do it.  That is, without a huge heaping of guilt.  I'm to busy to be guilty.  So, I hop in the car and run to the nearest ball field.  That makes me feel better.  

I've been noticing things budding and blooming at Rocky Ridge Farm.  I love Spring!  Everything is new!  New is good!

I would love to find a gallon of these yummy gems!  Two of them are not enough to feed a family of five!  

This photo scares me a little.  This tree is within 100 yards of my back door.  I'm certain it is the home to a critter.  ENOUGH SAID!!!

I hope that you have a wonderful week.
I hope to be more consistent with my blog.
I hope to find more time to be creative.

Artsy Fartsy

Sometimes I feel a little "artsy fartsy".  Sometimes I want to take photos of something besides children throwing balls, kicking balls, catching balls and hitting balls.  Sometimes I want to pretend that I am an artist in France.  

Since I'm not an artist in France, I decided to wander around Rocky Ridge Farm (also known as Hillbilly Hill) and take pictures.

I really don't deserve my rose bushes.  They are completely neglected, yet they bloom and bloom and bloom.

I found more mushrooms.  LOVE....LOVE....LOVE MUSHROOMS!!!
Love to eat them.
Love to find them.
Love to look at them.

If heaven doesn't have mushrooms, I will be really sad!!!!!

 I would love to know what this is.  Our property is littered with them.  Littered in a good way.

It's very windy here today.  Like, blow the hair right off your scalp, windy.  I think it's trying to blow in a storm tonight.

On a mushroom frenzy....

Warning: to those who couldn't care less about mushrooms!!!  

This post is jam-packed with 'em!!!  So..... you don't have to humor me by reading.  Really..... it's OK, I understand.

 I, myself, think that mushrooms are somewhat magical.  They make me think of fairies, and trolls and gnomes.  ( I watch Tinkerbell movies.  Shhh, it's a secret!)
Mushrooms make me think of stories that begin with, "Once upon a time in a land far-away..."

I went to Pershing Park Friday.  It had rained all week.  So everything was moist and squishy.  That, my friends, is prime mushroom habitat.  If I'm being honest, I didn't go there to take pictures of mushrooms.  I went there to see possible wildlife.  You know, lions......tigers.....bears, and such!!!  

However, I saw only two creatures.  This snail and a turtle.  The turtle was far away (in the water).  So technically, that doesn't even count.  

 But still, the snail is cute, ayy?

`

 Mr. Mushroom.  I think you're beautiful!

Now, if you haven't had enough of my mushroom antics.  I will leave you with two fabulous poems by two very smart ladies...............

The Mushroom

The mushroom is the elf of plants,

At evening it is not;

At morning in a truffled hut

It stops upon a spot

 

As if it tarried always;

And yet its whole career

Is shorter than a snake's delay,

And fleeter than a tare.

 

'Tis vegetation's juggler,

The germ of alibi;

Doth like a bubble antedate,

And like a bubble hie.

 

I feel as if the grass were pleased

To have it intermit;

The surreptitious scion

Of summer's circumspect.

 

Had nature any outcast face,

Could she a son condemn,

Had nature an Iscariot,

That mushroom,--it is him.

-Emily Dickinson

There was a land I once heard tell
‘Twas christened Mushroom Down
The folk who lived there loved it well
And never left their town
They stayed there from the hour of birth
Until the day they died
They never cared for any earth
Except their Mushroom pride
They made their homes beneath the caps
Of fungi wide and tall
And when time came for tea perhaps
A neighbor came to call
And while they sat in shade serene
And offered cream and cakes
They talked of things they’d never seen
Beyond the Mushroom lakes
They did not wish to journey there
They were contented so
But past the mossy banks somewhere
Lie what they did not know
More curious they grew by day
And still more so by night
They wondered if there were away
To take a Mushroom flight
Tormented by this new desire
More restless they became
And many began to conspire
On blueprints for a frame
A brilliant flying vehicle
Of mushroom caps and string
One gent proved astronautical
And built the very thing
And so the day arrived at last
On which the plane should board
The celebration went far past
What they could best afford
But they were folks of merry ways
And when the kegs were drained
In unison arose their gaze
And on the stroke --- it rained
Now in the hist’ry of the town
No soul had ever seen
A flood the likes of which poured down
Upon the Mushroom Green
A gathering was held betwixt
The elders late that night
And even their votes were unmixed:
“We must postpone the flight!”
The disappointment through the land
Was more than some could bear
For their own world, once thought so grand,
They did no longer care
To say the least it was a shame
To see the people act
As though they’d lost their hope, their flame
When their poor plans were sacked
But still the rain continued on
For more than fifty days
Their mushroom store was almost gone
They dreamt of sunshine rays
And that’s when they began to cease
Their thoughts of other towns
If only this storm would decrease
They’d cherish Mushroom Downs
That night was spent in blackness deep
No star was seen to shine
But when the morning broke their sleep
They saw a sight divine
The rain was nowhere to be found
The sky was fresh and clear
Hurrahs of joy for miles around
Were all that one could hear
And what is more, the earth had sprung
New mushrooms overnight
And many hymns of praise were sung
And no one spoke of flight
And so at last the ballad ends
With happiness sublime
And so the story goes, my friends
That is, until next time… 

-Emillie Autumn