West Virginia

We spent last week in the Canaan Valley in West Virginia. It was beautiful, and we experienced some early autumn weather. The valley floor is around 3000 feet, with hills on either side that offer beautiful views.

We were there with Dave and Meredith, and Dan and Hanneke and their son James, who's in between Clara and Lee (their daughter Hazel stayed behind with Hanneke's parents). The kids had a great time together.

We did some nice hiking. Here's a picture from a lookout at Blackwater Falls State Park. The fall color was gorgeous. I really like how one side of the canyon is only yellows and the other side has lots of reds.

The week was full of good meals, games, art projects, and lots of outdoor time hiking, running, and playing near the water.

We never did end up getting a group shot, so I can't post one. But for more of our pictures you can look here: http://gallery.me.com/ruthcsmith.

And here is a link to Dave's pictures. He's an awesome photographer: http://www.burnsorama.com/galleries/2009-10-CanaanValley/

Snow? In October?

Yesterday I was out running errands, and the weather was quite cold. Not freezing certainly, but very chilly, and a marked turn from just a week or so ago. And it was very grey. To me, it smelled like it might snow. Every time I chatted with a cashier, I would comment on this. I got a lot of strange looks. I've always thought that the air could smell like snow, but perhaps I'm the only one. Or, perhaps it was because it was only October 14th yesterday.

Then last night I read that a nor'easter is coming in for the weekend (yippee) with lots of rain, and perhaps even snow.

Well, it's just getting light this morning, and as I look outside I see snow on my hemlocks. Yes! I'm not so crazy after all.

Does this mean we have a doozy of a winter ahead of us? I've always heard that a bumper crop of acorns means a hard winter ahead. I don't know, that would mean that a God was involved who was looking out for the squirrels. A naturalist might argue that lots of acorns resulted from all the rain we had last year, and has nothing to do with the winter ahead, because nature cannot be prescient.

I guess we'll see in the coming months...

Clara the Pilgrim

I've been remiss not posting something about Clara starting pre-school. Second child syndrome, I guess.

Her class consists of 7 boys, one incredibly quiet and reserved girl, and Clara. I think Clara talks more than the rest of them combined, even though she's the youngest in the class. She comes home from school and says "Only Vincent talks to me."

But all in all she seems to love it, running into the class each day. She loves to clown around and has the teachers in stitches. Mrs. Duffany is very impressed with the level of her artwork, and I must attribute that to her being around Lee who is endlessly doing art projects.

I'll post some of her art projects later.