A Thanksgiving Hike

 Our weather this Thanksgiving weekend has been spectacular.   It was unseasonably warm and sunny.  We had our family dinner yesterday and ate it outside on the deck.  While we often eat outside in the summer, we've never, ever eaten Thanksgiving dinner outside before.   It was warm enough, even for an evening meal.

Knowing that there will be scant few days left like this,  we took advantage of the lovely weather by going for a hike at a nearby conservation area.  It's definitely autumn here.  Even with the weather this nice, you can tell by the leaves.  Some are changing colours and others have already fallen.  Even at midday, the sun is starting to be low enough in the sky to cast interesting shadows and lighting conditions.   The contrast between the light sparkling off the leaves and the dark of the start of the wooded areas was pretty stunning.





There was a small pond running into a stream which flowed along one side of the conservation area.   We got turned around a few times because there are a number of dead end trails.   One did lead to a lovely patch of Teasels, dried and prickly.   


The Milkweed was drying and opening up.   I love Milkweed in the fall.  As kids, we used to chase the little fluffy bits, catch them, make a wish and set them on their way again.  I don't think any of the wishes were even remembered at the time, but it was enjoyable and probably kept us out of trouble.

The trail map showed several different trails.  Not only were there a number of dead end trails, but most of the trails had few markings.   Good thing it was such a nice day and we didn't mind it at all.   The trails were fairly well groomed as well, so it was easy walking.



The trail we finally found ourselves on wandered by the stream.     The skies had whitened with high cloud cover.  Eventually we came to the little bridge.  The bridge was supposed to lead to a second trail, but we missed it and ended up winding our way back to the beginning of the trail, via another route.   We'll head back sometime to check out that second trail.

It was a lovely interlude and a gorgeous, holiday weekend.   With colder weather looming, one definitely has to take advantage of wonderful weather like this.   Just one more little thing to be thankful for this year.   Thanksgiving weekend is also the traditional time to plant the garlic.   Hopefully, I'll get to that tomorrow.