Autmn Hike

My friends Pam and Sue got married in a DC church on Saturday, and asked me to photograph their wedding. Since I did this as an official engagement, I cannot blog about the day or post any photos until I have handed over their copies, so I will post some photos of their happy day a little later.
On Sunday morning I woke up and saw a frost outside. I snuggled back into bed then thought about all the pretty frost patterns that were out there waiting for my camera lens, so I jumped up just dragging on a pair of boots over my jim jams and a jacket. Kota and I trotted outside and I although I was full of eager ideas of what I would photograph, I couldn't see a damn thing. My eyes were streaming from the cold and as soon as I started to focus on something, a tear would fall and block my viewfinder. I snapped a few photos and then gave up gracefully, choosing to go back indoors and wake up instead with a hot cup of tea.

But a few of the photos came out OK and the holly berries cheered me up as I thought of them on my windowsill over Christmas.

Kota playing with a balloon I brought home from the wedding. I loved the colors, for some reason reminding me of Marillion's harlequin...A Fish fan would maybe understand.
I got ready as I was meeting Emily, Jason and Leah, Emily's roommate for a hike. We were hiking near Chapman Mill, not too far from me so it was wonderful not to be doing so much driving today and the weather was perfect for a hike. It took me a little while to decide on clothing though, I must've taken my jacket on and off a dozen times. We met close to the mill and made a beeline for the building. May as well get a little exploring in.

We clambered over parts of it but I was happy when we got on the trail. I wasn't really interested in old buildings today, this was a day for autumnal photos of leaves and trees, dappled light and fall colors, and enjoying the crunching of a soft brown carpet underfoot.

OK, so we found an old house but I'm only posting one photo!

We climbed to the peak and sat on the edges of the rock platform drinking in the beautiful vista.

Turkey vultures hovered and ducked above us and the sun beat down. We munched on nuts, brie and crackers and simply just enjoyed being outside on such a perfect day.

We walked about 7 miles with quite a bit of elevation and I thoroughly enjoyed our hike, hardly having been out like this in the past year. Even though we'd had quite a day of exercise I felt relaxed and satisfied. We rambled back to our cars where Jason impressed us all by pulling out chilled beers. He had an old newspaper from 1944 which was a gem to read through, noting the war stories, adverts and classifieds.

As the sun dropped, so did the temperature, so we said our farewells along with promises of future hikes and I drove home to Meadow House and an early night.