Thursday, November 29, 2012

Outdoor Merriment

Remember Thanksgiving? Hard to believe it was only a week ago isn't it? Seems like Thanksgiving gets run over by Christmas every year, but I'm doing my part not to rush it away. Thanksgiving day in our neck of the woods was gorgeous.  


When I say our neck of the woods I literally mean our neck of the woods. Before all the cooking and carb-fest my little family hiked up to the top of the hill behind our house...


It's steep!  That's the top of my house in the photo.  

Whew! We made it! 


We saw plenty of evidence that a tresspasser had been here.  An angry someone by the name of Sandy left her mark on these woods not very long ago.  


We watched some deer hanging out near the enormous root ball of a group of downed trees. Hubs took a little video but their camouflage was designed by Someone who really knew what He was doing.  


This is our big rock.  


Okay, technically it's not ours, but it does sit right at the edge of our piece of the woods. 
Kinda like our own little scenic overlook-


For some reason I've got a firm hold on Daughter2.  
Old habits are hard to break I guess.  


The woods are full of ferns right now and that always makes us think of our once-upon-a-time English village. We used to walk to town on a path that went through some woods, teeming with ferns.  I always felt a little bit like I was in a fairy tale and at any moment a little creature might pop out from under the leaves and speak with a human voice.  


Sigh.
New Jersey is not England, but it has its own charms.  
  

I may have to look a little harder to see them...


...but a walk in the woods with the people I love on a blue sky Thanksgiving morning is a gentle reminder that God is good.  So good.

17 comments:

  1. The sky is so blue! Thanksgiving is the best day to get out and take a walk :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It does seem hard to imagine Thanksgiving was a week ago and I remember the weather day that day - beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanksgiving does seem to get lost in the Christmas madness. I hate that the stores are full of Christmas things at Halloween and Christmas music starts on Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas day. Hasn't anyone heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which is suppose to start on Christmas Day. Thanks for letting me sound off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We had a few HUGE rocks in our yard in Sparta. We called them "Sparta stones." I have some pics of our girls sitting on them through the years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sure looks like my kind of place to go for a nice, long hike...I love to explore! We did a little of that ourselves when we were all together for Thanksgiving...cherished time, for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  6. beautiful! I always say, Thanksgiving seems to be the ugly middle child, sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas. Sad really.

    We watched a movie called Monumental about the Pilgrims - and a monument in Mass. that just a few know about. Amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So beautiful...what a great way to spend Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a lovely day and what lovely memories.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice to have such a place in your backyard.....my thoughts looking at the pictures were what about the bears...is it safe!! Happy Thursday!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's nice to be able to enjoy a trek through the woods without having to drive off to find them first. LOL Looks like an absolutely fabulous time!

    ReplyDelete
  11. New Jersey or England, it looks like your girls bring their own charm to wherever they find themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow, your backyard is great, and weather sure was gorgeous. You really have a beautiful family. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. what a glorious view...what a beautiful home. i can almost smell the leaves and cool air

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love the idea of a hike before eating Thanksgiving dinner!

    Very smart you are. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Looks like you had a good day!
    The weather was unbelieveable that day, we had the doorwall open for hours! Of course the next day we had ice balls raining down in a fury, but....

    ReplyDelete
  16. Joyce, that looks like a lovely walk. Not easy climbing up a steep hill. So glad you had such a nice visit with the girls.

    ReplyDelete