wilted

Flowers at the end of life wear an interesting form of beauty.

gray

It's a gray and wet day today, matching my last day in Acadia. Luckily a good rain jacket allowed me to go on a reasonable outside walk this afternoon.

It's going to take a lot of water to erase the extreme drought that remains in place here; the rain is welcome.

along Park Loop Road on a foggy morning

photos! Acadia

Photos from my recent wander in Acadia National Park are available for viewing in the gallery autumn, Acadia.

from the top of Cadillac Mountain

Interested in words too? My ramblings are in the blog entries tagged Acadia 2016-10.

caught

A fallen leaf, caught between two blades of tall marsh grass, creates a sense of serenity.

blue surround

I love this splash of autumn color surrounded by the clear blue of the sky above and reflecting water below.

early voting

This is the first year that Massachusetts has early voting.

It was highlighted in the Boston Globe and I received a robocall from the town where I live with a notification of the location and the hours. Early voting runs from October 24th through November 4th, all day (business hours), every day except Sunday. The ability to avoid what I believe will be very busy polling places on election day seems like a good thing.

I voted yesterday.

from Cadillac Mountain

Evergreens share space with brightly colored ground cover and bushes. It was a beauty of a fall day on top of Cadillac Mountain.

in the garden

Last Monday was probably my last visit of "flower season" at The Garden at Pineland Farms. Most of the flowers were well past peak but a few late season beauties caught my eye.

fog

It rained overnight, and our morning wanders were decorated by fog!

We headed into Acadia for a walk along Ocean Path, sometimes walking on the rocks, sometimes on the trail. It almost felt like we had the park to ourselves this morning. Sea gulls wandered and ocean waves crashed on the rocks, creating a kind of music.

After our walk we headed home.

Fog followed us between Ellsworth and Bangor, alternating between a reasonable sight line and very soupy. Denise said she wanted to stop to take a picture of a field where she spotted bright red ground plants as we drove by on Monday. She thought the red and the fog would make an interesting contrast, and I think she was right. The field was in the middle of the heavy fog - we were very lucky to see it as we drove past. We turned around and headed back, looking for (and finding) a good off-of-the-road spot for the car.

Now that we're home again I think I'll help Denise find some more places to wander.

--- Rover

foggy morning in Acadia National Park


along Route 1A, somewhere between Ellsworth & Bangor, Maine

park walks

It was a good day for walking today. The air was crisp with temperatures in the low 50s. I was warm enough, and Denise had the right layers so she was warm too.

We started out with a walk from our B&B to Sieur de Monts Spring, following quiet and mostly empty roads before jumping onto Jesup Path in the park. The trail turns into a boardwalk above what is usually a wet area; the drought must have followed us here because the water was mostly missing.

Park Loop Road was our focus for the rest of the day. We left the car at the Sand Beach parking lot and walked and walked. Whenever Denise saw something interesting we stopped. Sometimes it was a photo stop. Sometimes it was a sit and absorb the beauty around us stop. Both were good.

After we switched from using our feet to sitting in a car we continued our moving and stopping behavior.

Clouds rolled in during the afternoon. When Denise saw the cloud-painted sky she decided we should head back up Cadillac Mountain to see the late day light. It was pretty chilly up there, but oh! it was beautiful. I think I'm starting to understand why Denise likes the sky when it is decorated by clouds.

--- Rover