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.

Snow at Meadow House II

I completely forgot that I'd taken photos with both of my cameras during the snow so here's a few more shots that I managed to save. I came so close to deleting the card before noticing these.

Halloween 2011

Monday was Halloween so I went racing up to Sterling after work to go Trick or Treating with The Lukester and Maximus.

They were both dressed up as Iron Man. So cute!

Heather and Kylie getting some candy. Us adults hovered around the kids not just for safety reasons but fervently hoping a basket might accidentally tip and drop some tasty goodies to the floor which could then be sneakily retrieved and gobbled. Well, that was what I was hoping anyway.

Aidin's dad Denny shone his flashlight on to some of the kids adding a cool slant to my photos.

We trolled round the neighborhood and the boys' baskets were loaded, with me very close behind. Actually, Aiden, Luke and Max were very generous and each handed me a treat. We had to stop at the house and offload and then it was into Jim's car to stop at Ooma's house and then Kim & Scott's house.

Ooma with the Iron Men.

Kim and Scott's house looked awesome as usual and as we stopped and chatted it seemed that every kid in the neighborhood was making a beeline for their front yard. After taking more photos, it was back to the house and then home for me, with me remembering to pick up my eagerly awaited jar of marmalade made by Myra.

Back at Meadow House I had to then dress up Kota in his Halloween costume. This year he was a punk rocker. He was great and we managed to get a fab shot for his Facebook page but I also loved this one. His face clearly saying, just do it, just get it over with. Poor boy, I didn't have the heart to tell him we'll be shooting our Christmas photo together soon.