Pinery - Thanksgiving 2015

That time of year... ahhh yes... the rustle of the wind in the leaves, the soft swirl of falling colours... and the bloody hazzard of the acorn bombardment! They loosen off and wait for the unsuspecting passerby - then hail down with sharp, pointed vengence! Denting cars, drawing blood , and damn dangerous and slippery underfoot. I love fall...

That time of year... ahhh yes... the rustle of the wind in the leaves, the soft swirl of falling colours... and the bloody hazzard of the acorn bombardment! They loosen off and wait for the unsuspecting passerby - then hail down with sharp, pointed vengence! Denting cars, drawing blood , and damn dangerous and slippery underfoot. I love fall...

You are being watched - every moment of every day ... that sense of eyes upon you is not a figment of your imagination... Of course this little fella was only 3 inches - so not much of an apparent threat... but hey - there are a million or so of them scampering around you... so....

Somebody's been eating the mushrooms.... The tree had gone down in a storm, and was allowed to rot where it fell as good nursery stock in the conservation area... except for the bit of it that blocked the trail. For that bit, a chainsaw crew removed the offending slice... and in doing so, set up the opportunity for a fun observation checkpoint of the progressive decay. As you can see - there's a lot happening, even in just a short couple of years. Of note - there *was* a healthy crop of mushrooms sprouting... now the the ragged remains of stems attests to a "score" by a happy diner... and given the ripped and chewed bits of mushroom cap gracing the log, I'm assuming this was a smaller critter than a human.

a path beckons... how can you not follow it, to see where it goes?

the pines float and sparkle in the sunshine...such airy boughs

sunning themselves in the October sunlight ( we reached 23 ˚C this day)

makes you want to explore, doesn't it? The old AuSable channel cut wanders with intriguing bends and corners like this...

Just after dawn he joined me, playing in the dappled early morning light overhead... a pleasure to have company for my morning cuppa tea...