a Sunday hike

It was a peaceful and fairly warm Sunday afternoon when my girlfriend and I decided to take a walk in a nearby park.

This was last week so in a way we were starting off the New Year in a good way.

The day before we'd had quite a bit to eat at a brunch for her kids with her ex-husband in attendance along with his current romantic interest. A few hours of eating, talking, and best of all several pitchers of mimosas. Who would guess that OJ could be THAT good!

Sunday was a day to make up for all that food and drink. Walking and talking along pine needle carpets with a vista of the lovely trees above and marshy hollows below.




I think in this picture my girlfriend was trying to decide whether she should walk up all those steps or just spend the night there.

I was half expecting her to send me out for a sleeping bag but instead she surprised me by zipping up the path, hopping from step to step in almost total abandon. I, on the other hand, followed with a more leisurely pace.

The terrain in this park moves up and down quite a bit since it follows the bluffs above a small stream. At one time it was quite a river, as the large bluffs left behind attest.

While the terrain is rough, the actual path is well tended and quite easy to follow. Which is just as well since my legs aren't as young as they used to be!


I took this picture just to show everyone how silly this tree is. Can you imagine letting every Tom, Dick & Harry that comes around to see between your legs like that? What a hussy of a tree!

Seriously, it's amazing that the tree could live after being devastated like that. At one point nothing but the bark on one side must have been living--and yet the tree started over and now there's a sturdy, albeit awkward looking, sapling growing there.

I love that picture below. I'm thinking of using it as my desktop wallpaper for a while. There's something about the grays and blues and the stretched out tree limbs that just appeals to me...