Had a great fall

The sky cleared and the rain went away and the sun shone brightly and lo, it was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods with my birding-and-botanizing buddy and her new (and very well-behaved) dog, except the sudden onset of gorgeous weather inspired many other people to go walking in the woods with their dogs, which led to some tense moments. We saw trees on fire with fall color, geese tipping tails up in the pond as they ducked for supper, and berries glowing scarlet, coral, pink, and blue. (The blue berries grow on an invasive prickly vine imported from Asia; it grows up to six inches each day and is aptly named Mile-a-Minute Vine.)

We were so intent on looking up at all the loveliness when we should have been looking down that we each on separate occasions missed our footing and fell flat on our faces in the dirt. I'll be sore tomorrow but at the time I was more concerned about my camera, which hit the ground pretty hard. So far it seems to have escaped serious harm, as did my buddy when she turn her turn to slip. The only one to come through the hike unscathed was the dog.