Color in the backyard…

 

"O hushed October morning mild, 
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; 
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all. 
The crows above the forest call; 
Tomorrow they may form and go. 
O hushed October morning mild, 
Begin the hours of this day slow. 
Make the day seem to us less brief. 
Hearts not averse to being beguiled, 
Beguile us in the way you know. 
Release one leaf at break of day; 
At noon release another leaf; 
One from our trees, one far away."

-   Robert Frost, October

 

Sometimes the beauty of this time of year is nearly overwhelming but I would still like the day to seem “less brief”.

A Misty, Moisty Hike up Schoodic Mountain…

“One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.”                                                    John Muir

Schoodic Mountain Trailhead

 

 

It was a good thing Mr C and his family left for home before the hike because there were sporadic showers and bee stings involved in this one.  Mr J handled the bee stings quite well, and both he and Miss E managed a rather strenuous,wet hike which was fortunately rewarded at the end by a swim at a very nice, secluded, fresh water pond.

The trails up Schoodic Mountain are located on the Donnell Pond Reserve,  property owned and managed by the Maine Department of Conservation.   The summit has a great view of the mountains of Acadia National Park, nearby ponds and lakes and the Atlantic Ocean…but we never saw them through the clouds.  I have to admit that although I would have skipped the bees, I loved the misty  atmosphere we hiked through.  Still, I would like to return on a clear day. 

A Day Mountain Saunter…

“Hiking - I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them.”                   

                                      John Muir, quoted by Albert Palmer in A Parable of Sauntering

 

 

 

 

The kids asked to hike Day Mt this year…each time we have climbed it in August there have been lots of blueberries to pick along the way…This time however there weren’t any…I think that they ripened early.  Trail mix replaced the blueberries and the hike remained a success.