A Late Autumn Walk

 An unexpected afternoon so rich in Fahrenheit degrees that there were plenty to spare yesterday!  I stuck my nose out of doors (at last) toward afternoon, like Kenneth Grahame's Mole (only then it was Spring), to find that the sunshine was not being a false, painted lady, but even warmer than it looked.  Not wanting to pack all the trappings and gadgetry normally ascribed to forays into the world with infants in tow, I wrapped the baby round my middle and off we went. (God bless the individual who invented the Moby wrap! Otherwise known as an instrument of freedom to walking mothers.)

We found ourselves a nice bit of conifer wood and sundry, and meandered around, blissfully contented. Baby dozed off inevitably, and I took the last few pictures of fall foliage for the year, for the end of the season is now in sight here in New York.  We took a short rest on a bed of pine needles, and laughed together at the pictures I had taken.

We weren't much alone, though; it seemed a thousand thousand people had taken to the streets and then parks and woods with the same idea... must-get-out!  But I felt rather chummy with everyone on this occasion, seeing as how we had all responded to the same tug and knew exactly how the others felt.

Towards suppertime we made our way home with an appetite not to be reckoned with by any sandwich known to man... we must needs seek more serious fare to finish our lovely outing.

Linden leaves: "Light as leaf on linden tree..." J. R.R. Tolkien

 "Oh 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. ..."

-Robert Frost