Last of Oct

The weather was beautiful Monday, and the lab was closed so I took a few hours and went for a walk in the hills above town. You can't have a Tuesday holiday here without everyone wanting Monday off too. With the schools closed for the week, it's hard to keep the moms at work. So when the boss is okay with being closed, we're just closed.

One of my favorite stands of trees. I'd love to get a wider shot from this side, but stepping back would mean falling down about 15 feet.

I wasn't the only one out for a stroll in the sun. This popular trail is a regular highway of hikers. Even the pasture with the stand of trees, which is a steep scramble up the last bit of hill off to one side of the trail was full of people - a mom looking at a picture book with her young daughter, a man and some kids wandering around, a random dog probably attached to somebody down the path. No cows, at least. I've never seen the cows up there, although each time I have to be careful of fresh cowpats so I know they're regular visitors.

Still some blackberries in the brambles. A bit past their prime, though the one on the right was okay. 

There's one kind of tree (what kind is this one?) that puts on a great show of Yellow, but it's plagued with Black Spots. Which are kind of interesting, aesthetically, but I don't imagine the tree appreciates them much.

And naturally, the path is sideways. Blogger used to load photos in portrait format if it decided that's the way it went. So it was hit&miss with a lot of abstract things. But now it's made up its mind to be entirely consistent and never, ever load anything but landscape formats.