As long as I can remember, Indian Summer is what the old-timers called these hot days after a sharp frost. Indian Summer is a temporary revival. I like to think of it as Mother Nature giving us a second chance to enjoy the season.
Geography defines this time of year. We who live in the the eastern and central United States have a lot of hardwood forests that put on a spectacular color exhibit. Mother Nature opens her watercolor tray and mixes colors that blend into brilliant reds, oranges, rusts, yellows, browns, and golds. It is a breathtaking time of year. If you get a high from Nature like we do, well, this is the time of year to overdose.
And, that's exactly what we three gallivanters did yesterday. We headed east to the secluded logging roads of a forest...one of our favorite placeS ever! When this solitary gold leaf latched itself onto the windshield right in front of me, I figured it wanted its picture taken.
Whenever I see ferns, my mind flips back to childhood and remembers my mom's pet fern. It stood like a leafy octopus on its special fern stand in the living room. All households back then had fern stands for these big floppy green things that really never did anything except droop.
Midway through our drive, the hungries got to us, so hubby stopped at a tiny-town convenience store and bought us three plastic spoons and a quart of Blue Bunny I Do I Do Wedding Cake Ice Cream. Omigod, it had strawberries, cake, and vanilla ice cream mixed together. We sat on a picnic table along the Mighty M and had an Indian Summer picnic that rated right up there as one of our favorite picnicS ever! The fuzzy one lapped up her portion from a margarine container that we keep in the glove compartment for just such times.
If you look close, you'll see one of the trail riders who, too, were taking advantage of this weather revival. Outdoorsy ones were sightseeing, tenting, fishing, hiking, biking, riding horses, boating.....all with the thought that this just might be the last nice weekend of the season.
It's refreshing to watch the pace slow down. The horses leisurely walking through the trout stream, teaching their riders to take it slow. When we're out on our day trips, we happen upon the friendliest people. A group of 14 motorcycle riders stopped in one place we were, and one of the guys was taking a picture of the group. Hubby right away offered to take the photo so the whole group could be on the picture. They lined up their Harleys and lifted their ladies up on rocks in what had be an absolutely gorgeous photographic memory.
My bare feet had to be careful here not to slip on the mat of moss beneath them. There was no way on this green earth that I would give up a chance to walk through these gentle Indian Summer waters.
Ta-ta for today!
