First Autumn Walk

This morning, three slow women—Claudia, Melissa (who lives over yonder near Claudia), and I—accompanied four fast dogs (Maggie, Hubert, Belle, and Penny) on the first walk this autumn.

Given the little dispute that Maggie and Belle had on their last walk, we were a bit cautious, but after a few preliminary growls, the dogs were fine.

We walked the bottom that Mitzi had mowed, crossed the creek, and followed the Smith Mountain Hounds' trails—or at least a couple of them.

The dog in the foreground is Penny; Hubert is the dark spot in the sun.

One trail circled an old house that hasn't been lived in for years:




We looked at a lot of the local flora, too. For instance, this shrub (tree?):

We don't know its name, but we see it all along the bottoms and we've admired its red berries. Anybody know what it is?

After we walked the bottoms (and the dogs ran the bottoms), we went up the graveyard hill. In the woods, we saw lots of mushrooms. One of the odder ones looked like it was bleeding:


None of us had ever seen this kind of mushroom before, but several like this grew in one area partway up the backside of the graveyard hill. Again, anybody know what it is?

This one, on top of the hill, looks like a melting snowman:


And then there's this one that's just pretty:


We put a couple of miles on ourselves and the dogs. Even though I'm a slow walker, I'm so much better this fall than I was last fall when I had the heel spur and other problems.

I'm glad I can keep on going—especially on walks on beautiful autumn days with good company—both human and canine.

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