Gold strewn everywhere

Walking along the river valley this week has been breathtaking. Who needs that yellow ore mined from the depths of the earth when it's on all the trees once a year?

When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God why they gave humans and magpies the desire for shiny things even as they filled the earth with enough beauty to suffice for all our lifetimes...

Here are a few pictures from this week's walks for your enjoyment. Have a beauty of a weekend!

Quiet Sunday morning river...

Not easy to capture Wednesday's uphill climb, but the sun was right...

This morning's walk home from our downtown dentist...

I hope next year there will be a Folk Music Festival here...

Gold leads me all the way home... where my heart is.

A little more autumn colour

People who follow these moodlings know that I'm a sucker for spring and autumn beauty. I love the shot at the top of these moodlings, taken by my hubby, Lee. Pictures clog this blog because my camera is always in my pocket when Shadow and I go for walks in the shoulder seasons. I don't pretend to be a great photographer, it's just that beauty stops me in my tracks, and Shadow is mostly patient with me trying to capture it. One of these days, I should delete about a million pictures in my computer files. But in the meantime, here's some autumn colour from the last few days.

 A view from Strathearn hill...

and here's a retaining wall near Mill Creek... love the wood pattern...

Heading down into the "Camel Humps"...

Enjoying a zillion different shades of autumn...

The tamaracks are just starting to turn...
same tall one in the middle of the last picture,
from the opposite direction...

A golden grove...

Shadow loves beach combing at the accidental beach...

while I love watery reflections...

and offroading...

with my good walking buddy.

A gorgeous evening walk

Lee and I took Shadow for a walk this evening, and what a golden evening it was. Pictures can't quite do it justice, but Lee took a couple anyway that I'll just leave here... so I can look back on a golden autumn evening in the dark winter evenings to come...

Autumn beauty

The weather is turning, and the leaves won't be with us much longer. So today I am looking at the beauty that has surrounded me on walks in the last week or two, the photos I can't help but snap every year. This past weekend, Lee and I had a couple of really fine walks in nature even though the weather wasn't great, simply because the colours were. If you haven't had time to enjoy autumn beauty, this is for you.

The last of the leaves

Shadow and I had a wonderful walk before my trip overseas. I'm not a great photographer, but I love autumn. For your enjoyment... have a lovely day.

A long autumn and a short fall?

It's that time of year when I keep my camera in my pocket every time I go for a walk. Just can't get enough of the golden trees and changing forest. The river reflects the sky, the trees on the banks reflect in the calm water, and really, the camera can't do nature justice, but I keep on trying...

It froze last night, a light frost, but still enough to kill squash and tomatoes. I had covered some things, but wouldn't you know it, the wind blew the sheets down. I was hoping to give my cherry tomatoes more time to ripen on the vine, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Fortunately, I picked all the squash and larger tomatoes I could yesterday afternoon, and what a haul it is. There's enough this year to be canning tomatoes to my heart's content (and my stomach's)!

We also have a few nice squashes and pumpkins 

for jack'o'lanterns and good eating.

Autumn doesn't officially arrive until 2:21 MST on September 23 (the wee hours of tomorrow) but it feels like it's already here. Our drought stressed trees seem to be dropping leaves early this year -- but of course, that could be my imagination and the fault of the winds we've been having these last few days. Autumn is only beginning, but the fall (of leaves) is happening in a hurry.

So enjoy the beauty while it lasts. And the bounty. This is the best time of year to visit farmers' markets -- and friends with too much produce!

Simple Suggestion # 216... Try a broader perspective

These last few weeks of autumn, during the season when "every leaf is a flower," as noted by Camus, my walks with Shadow pup have been just glorious. The many tree-canopied streets we stroll fill my eyes with sun-flecked greens and golds that are too much to take in from the sidewalks. So I decided to abandon the sidewalks and walk down the middle of the residential roads (moving out of the way if cars come, of course). And I've discovered that my canopied perspective from the middle of the street is better. See what I mean?

As Shadow and I walked under the trees, I started thinking about how important it is to broaden our perspectives whenever possible. Human beings are not meant to be static. When we always do things and see things in the same way, we miss out on a lot of living.

A few weeks ago, my cousin reminded me of this again. She invited me to go with her to our local mosque's open house on "Islam and Non-violence." With all the stories about the extremist Islamic State in the news, the event was timely! Unfortunately, I had a prior commitment and missed out, but she and her parents went and really enjoyed learning about our Muslim brothers and sisters and their beliefs. She commented that it was "very informative and refreshing to hear that Islam is also peaceful" (its name is actually derived from the Arabic word for peace) -- it's mainly the ISIS/ISIL extremists who have twisted the meaning of the Quran's teachings. I hope the local mosque will have another open house soon, as I plan to attend the next one with my cousin.

That's just one example. Sometimes widening our perspective can be as simple as rearranging a routine or doing something differently. I could try brushing my teeth with my left hand rather than my right, or make a different choice for breakfast. Take a different route to work, or listen to another radio station/read an alternative news feed. Try on a new point of view. Imagine walking a mile in the moccasins of someone whose life is completely different. The possibilities are endless! The idea is that by changing things up, we widen our appreciation of the life we've been given and gain insight into the perspectives of others not like us -- and teach our "old dog" a "new trick" or two in the process.

How will you expand your horizons today?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.