gathering

There's a downy snow falling.  It's cold, but there's no wind, so I thought it would be a good day to try and gather some greenery for Christmas decorating.

I set out , secateurs in hand, with visions of myself loaded down with armfuls of greenery (a la Martha Stewart).   I hiked around to the middle of the back field via our little trail, to a stand of pines I had noticed on an earlier walk.  By the time I scraped my way to them through the undergrowth and thorny bushes, I realized the branches were a bit high.  I did manage to jump up and grab a few, and cut them down.  This is all I managed to get despite my valiant efforts.  

Those red branches are sumac.  I cut them by the front of the property, near the road.  I guess I'll have to try and fill out my little urns with some dry hydrangea heads and things scrounged from the garden.

Three things come to mind, after today's expedition:

1. Nothing good comes without a great deal of effort.

2. Simplicity is really the way to go, when it comes to Christmas decorating.

3. The only thing Martha and I have in common, is that we're both Polish girls and anything Martha-related that I have attempted is inevitably doomed to failure. (Not that you don't totally rock, Martha, you do ).

  

warm weather walk

November is the month of greys and browns.  It's usually quite cold, and so if you're out on a walk, you hurry along, thinking all the while about that hot cup of coffee, of tea or steaming bowl of soup (at least I do, but I think about food all day) that will be waiting for you at home.  

I had a few stolen moments yesterday, so I walked the little trail along the river in the neighbouring town.  And because it was so warm, I was able to just enjoy all the beauty November provides, instead of fixating on a hot drink.

On a colder day, I wouldn't have noticed this little seed pod.

Or this fuzzy guy.

When your camera lens is dirty, you can get some neat light effects.

I think I enjoyed this excursion that much more, because I hear we're in for some soup weather just around the corner.

It was nice while it lasted.

walking to the store to buy eggs

On Saturday my daughter and I took a walk to the small convenience store in the neighbouring village to buy eggs.  It really is a small village, and if you blink while driving by, you've missed it.  Instead of walking along the two-lane highway in front of our place, we decided to go the back way, through the fields.

I think this is a Kentucky Coffee tree, one of the trees native to the Carolinian forest which runs through our part of the world.  They're very resilient and grow quickly.  Once you've walked through our field, and the neighbour's field (yes, we're trespassing, but only for a few minutes)  
you reach a small one-lane gravel road.  It's very picturesque but you can't see it because I deleted it by mistake while editing this post.  Don't worry, we'll revisit it later.

We saw some lovely wildflowers and gorgeous fall foliage.  Before you think this is all sunshine and flowers, we also heard quite a few gunshots, I guess it's goose or deer or duck hunting time (I don't know, we don't hunt).  That always has the effect of hurrying me along on a country walk , especially when I'm not wearing bright colours.  In our hurry, we sort of fell into a ditch.  You see, the grass was really tall, and we didn't know there was a ditch under it.  It was dry though,  and the grass cushioned our fall.

 
We (and the eggs) made it home in one piece.