Choir concert

 Sarah drove to her choir concert. She did a good job.

 She was especially proud of her perfect parking job on the first try.

 She looked mopey so I told her to smile...

 ...and this is what I got.

 It was standing room only at the concert, so Noah sat by the wall.

post-concert

Afternoon hike with Mike

I like hiking in the afternoon, even though the deer aren't out.  Where do they go all day?  We did see some turkeys, and Mike found a turkey feather.

Early morning hike with Mom

Last week, Mom and I were planning to meet at 8 a.m. to hike.  She likes to go that early.  It's not my favorite time, but I do like that the deer are out at that hour.  So I arrived 30 minutes early to take pictures of deer.  They did not disappoint.  I saw a herd of nine of them. The pictures aren't great, because the sun wasn't all the way up yet, and it was still pretty dark in the woods.

 It was so cold when we started hiking that we could see our breath.  However, you can't see it in the picture, so we just look weird.

 Found a beautiful dead butterfly.

 This is the view that was behind us in the next picture, but I'm not a great photographer, so it's all washed out and overexposed, but we saw it in real life. Reminded me of when Grandma Opal took me to Grandview Drive when I was six, and I thought it was so beautiful.

 When we got to the top of Pimeteoui Trail, we hiked along Grandview Drive and looked at the mansions.

 Back on the trail, we saw this tree  that must have grown around this big rock.

 

No hiking today, just being still.

Today was my annual "sit under a tree and watch squirrels" afternoon.  It wasn't long enough, because I had to pick up Sarah from school, but still so enjoyable.

 This was my favorite tree.  It had beautiful feathery leaves, interesting-looking green balls, and bark that looked like it had been scratched by bears' claws.  The whole thing smelled like pine, which made me think of Colorado, so I hovered under it a long time.

There were no squirrels around it though, so I moved my little camp to a clump of oak trees where the squirrels were scurrying and burying.  I set out some nuts for them on my blanket, but nobody was brave enough to come to my blanket, so I tossed some nuts to them.  I didn't actually read that book while I was there (although it is a great book, and I highly recommend it), nor did I really intend to.  I just keep a book nearby so I can pretend to read and look normal if people come around.  People tend to call the cops if they see someone lying under a tree, tossing nuts to squirrels, and watching leaves fall, which is really what I like to do.  But sitting under a tree and reading a book is socially acceptable behavior.

I was hungry, and those nuts started looking good to me, so I ate a few.  The squirrels still had plenty. 

 I made a nice pillow out of pine needles. 

This cute little squirrel looks like he's modestly covering his nipples. I love squirrels.  I could watch them all day, busy at their tasks. 

Hiking season is back!

I love October.  I must hike every day.  I do all my usual trails, but this year, my friend Leslie said she discovered a new trail behind her sister's house.  She invited me and our friend Denise to hike it yesterday.  The most challenging part was getting from her sister's backyard down to the path.  It was a very steep, slightly muddy slope.  Thankfully someone had put a rope there.

Once we got to the bottom, we had to plow through some thick underbrush and cross a creek before we reached the path.  The path ended up on private property, and the saucy wench who lived there told us to get off her property, so we ended up on the street in East Peoria.  The only way back was to walk along the busy street until we got to the bike path.  It was a fun, new adventure!

Today my parents and I hiked at Forest Park.  We talked about Pimeteoui Trail, but decided to do Wake Robin Trail instead, since none of us had ever done that one before. But when we got there, we were met with this sign:

So we decided to just start with Deer Run Trail and see what happened.  Before we even got on the trail, we saw six deer and several wild turkeys.

Dad decided to do the Bee Trail while Mom and I did Deer Run.  When we got to Wake Robin, it was roped off and marked closed, but we ducked under the rope to see how far we could get.  There were some trees down over the trail, but nothing bad enough to stop us.  We went until the trail was so washed out that we couldn't even tell where it was supposed to be, decided we didn't want to get hopelessly lost in the woods, turned around, and went back to Deer Run.  When we got to the other end of Wake Robin, we crossed the ropes and decided to see how far we could get tackling it from this side.  We ended up making it all the way through.  Lots of ups and downs, turkeys, deer, squirrels, chipmunks. It was a good hike.