An Autumnal Picnic

Yesterday, I packed a picnic dinner and swept Hub away to the nearby Enger Tower to eat chicken salad sandwiches on a big rock overlooking the whole city. We live so close and yet we don't do this often enough. The day was gorgeous, a perfect autumn day, and I said to Hub that we had to cherish all the good days that we can. I should mention that the past 5 or so days have been completely dreary, rain-soaked, with barely a peep of sunshine at all. My wellies, going on their 3rd season, are already being put to good use again. So perhaps this monotonous, gloomy weather was really what prompted my need to eat outside, take in fresh air, and feel the warmth of the autumn sun soaking into my back as we viewed our little city from above with 2 bald eagles soaring overhead, I think eyeing up my delicious chicken salad. I do make some mean chicken salad, at least I think so. ;)

After dinner, we hiked around a bit and unexpectedly found the mother load of mushrooms trail. Big, plump, mushrooms in every shade of orange and brown everywhere we looked. I was in mushroom heaven snapping shots left and right...along with a few other specimens of nature. Unfortunately though, I didn’t have much photo success yesterday. But I will share with you the few that were not blurry or dark or just plain not good. So here’s my little photo essay of our "Autumnal Picnic & Unexpected Mushroom Hike" with descriptions below:

1~Enger Tower, illuminated by the setting sun

2~Wild Asparagus, gone to seed and very pretty red seeds at that

3~A close-up encounter with a spiky type of moss

4~Toadstool, freshly plucked from the earth (a simple, satisfying act, no?)

5~Short & stocky mushroom, with tiny spider on its stem

6~Find Hub in the forest ;)

7~Spiky Pinecone Stash, clustered & buried in the earth by some critter, perhaps?

8~Mushroom duo with pretty, ruffly ring around the stems