Nosy

Heaven be praised. It’s raining!

Friday morning’s round trip to Queensbury produced little in the way of photographs so after lunch when Grant suggested another sortie, well why not?

It will be a long dark winter after all.

Winters are not all dark, of course. Those bright days following a snowstorm are brilliant, but the days are short. Predictions for Sunday morning suggested we might have frost which may well have occurred down by the river. Here it was not that cold, but when I went outside there was that first hint of a chill that marks the arrival of Fall proper.

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A friend of mine goes often to Madeira which he tells me enjoys a perfect climate. Everything else about it sounds wonderful as well, but how do you appreciate perfection if you have no comparisons?

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When I first lived near Seattle, the climate was temperate, very seldom too hot or too cold. It was nice enough and very acceptable to my ancient father who spent his final years there, but I missed the seasons.

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Coming back through Greenwich I could hardly miss this startling image. I was so dazzled by it that I failed to notice the intensely red tree in the background!

Those were Friday morning’s only images, thus after lunch, we went back out…

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Grant and our neighbour Ed had one of their outings the previous day. They visit a selection of ice cream parlors, touring the countryside while setting the world to rights and in the process discovering or re-discovering scenic routes.

The only problem with Ed and Grant’s discoveries is that they occur while the lads are engaged in heady conversation such that details tend to be overlooked.

It’s all very well to have the names of roads but it is also handy to know which direction to take when you reach them. Ah.

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Before long we came to Bogtown Road and went down it, then back up it, having not found whatever it was we were looking for. I’d forgotten, was it horses or water lilies?

If we found one apparently we’d find the other…

“Maybe it was just Bog Road”, said the man, so I consulted GPS but we were offline. Oh well.

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When eventually the signal was restored, I was informed that a journey to Bog road would take over five hours so we decided perhaps that was not right.

The good thing about this is that it really doesn’t matter if we get lost because there is no time line* and wherever we end up, there’s always something worth seeing.

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Trees appeal to me at any of their many stages but I particularly like this one.

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Something about those last few leaves clinging on.

The comparative simplicity of the image?

It seems I use the word simple quite often. Does it say something about me?

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A heron abandoned its fishing to watch us pass.

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Traffic avoidance is very helpful. Turning a corner to avoid slow drivers and tailgaters often leads to good discoveries and sometimes to where we actually planned to go in the first place.

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Which turned out to be the case this day.

Suddenly, there was the stretch of water we’d been seeking.

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We had been here once before and intended to return at a time when we might see the water lilies in bloom but foolishly we failed to note the location, putting too must trust in memory! This was the wetland Grant re-discovered while driving with Ed.

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Too late for the lilies, though I did find one still perfect bloom.

Now we’ve got the location down, the next thing to remember is when to come next year.

We saw beaver lodges but no beavers. Something to look out for another time.

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So, we’d found the water lilies and now Grant knew where to find the horses.

There are lots of horses here and I love them all, but that long ago day when we first found the wetland, nearby we’d come upon a group of particularly beautiful creatures that made me gasp with delight.

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Regrettably on Friday they were hiding in a barn or around a corner, but at least we know now where to find them. The above trio see us drive by all the time on our way to or from Greenwich.

The way they always look up, I could swear they know us now.

Or maybe they are just nosy.