Walks and hikes – Page 9

Our Exercise

Disclaimer: though I avoid politics in my blog and am currently avoiding Facebook, I am going to be lightly political here today.

About the time the university opened in the adjacent town, the town established some safely protocols to try to help protect both the students and the full time town folk. Because of the protocols established by the university, making dining on campus more time consuming and perhaps more dangerous, many more students are eating in town, thus putting them on the town sidewalks. One of the new regulations was to post signage throughout town and even two electronic signs mandating mask wearing while on downtown sidewalks and no group gatherings of more than about 10 people.

At the time these were posted, when we elected to walk the old rail grade that runs from near the public library over into the next town, we commented to each other that we wished they had included the signage on that paved trail as well. Some sections of it are widely used. As seniors, but knowing that exercise and fresh air are important, we have been confining most of our walks to the pond in the state forest nearer our house, always masked or with mask in hand to put on if there are other people walking, jogging, or fishing there.

A couple of weeks ago, smaller, modified versions of the sign above appeared on the trail, much to our delight, but to our dismay, mostly ignored. There are two versions of the signage text, as below:

and one with two masked figures with a line between them labelled 6′.

Today we were in town and decided to walk the Huckleberry trail. Social media and the news began labeling entitled white women as “Karens.” While walking today with few masked individuals passing us, many joggers, several bicycles, one skateboard all unmasked, I jokingly said to hubby that I was going to start calling unmasked “entitled” folks “Donalds.” Do you think we can make it as viral as “Karens”?

Note: I will be remotely sharing my posts to Facebook, but I am not viewing Facebook at this time to see reactions or comments posted there. As a blogger, I would love to see your comments below.

Autumn is falling

Though the temperature today was more like mild summer, when we went on our walk, the evidence of autumn is everywhere.

A cluster of red leaves from a broken oak branch amid the fallen leaves on the trail.

The wood ferns are all browning.

Leaves littering the path, geese resting in the pond before continuing their southward journey. Usually several spend the winter at the pond.

At home, the trees are turning and one young maple has already dropped it’s leaves.

The ridge line we see coming from town is the last to green up in the spring and the first to begin yellowing in the autumn. Soon the woods will be bare and the wildlife can be seen staying away from the open fields and in the edge of the woods. The woods to our north east have thinned enough to begin seeing our nearest neighbor’s house that can only be seen from our house in winter.

The temperatures will fall back after tomorrow to more fall like weather and we will get rain from Delta on the weekend. The frost that was predicted disappeared and I see no chance for at least 2 weeks.

Spin, knit, cook, read, walk, and vote

The bulk of my time with the garden in Autumn decline is to spin on my spindles.

Knit on a project I can’t share yet, as it is a gift.

Cook at home. When you want Lasagna and it makes way too much for two, get creative. If Stouffers can do it, so can I.

One for the oven, three for the freezer to be enjoyed on other nights. Made with local cheese, my pasta sauce.

Re-reading for about the 10th time my favorite book that recenters me each time I read it and reinforces my belief in buy local, eat local, grow it yourself if you can.

Take walks at the pond, there is always something new to see. The wildfowl have been absent for the summer, but there was a pair of ducks, an 18″ long garter snake, the usual plethora of turtles, and lovely light play in the woods.

One of these causes seasonal allergies, one does not, do you know which?

We had decided to vote absentee ballot this year due to the pandemic, but today when they came, we drove them straight to the county seat unopened and voted early in person.

No crowd, no line, two masked workers behind a shield wall, so safe and no chance that our ballot would be dismissed for whatever reason. Then we got home to find an article from Forbes on how the Trump Campaign is actively considering how to bypass the results if he doesn’t win. What happened to free and fair elections in this country? What will happen to this country?