Perfectly Beautiful November Day

My son came for a long weekend visit. Saturday we spent the day at the bookstore, and my idea was that we would hike the dunes on Sunday, but Sunday was so grey and dreary we stayed indoors, reading, watching movies, cooking and eating. It was a very cozy day. No complaints. I was counting on sunshine for Monday, and sunshine we got. First came errands in Suttons Bay, Lake Leelanau and Leland, and then--outdoors with Sarah for our adventure!


We took in the sights from the sublime to the quirky (both of us noticed this odd two-pronged stump), exploring new trail loops recently added that we were both hiking for the first time.





Birches are the stand-out trees in this preserve. This one looks as if the dunes half-buried it many years ago. And who started piling small birch sticks against another trunk? Why? I added one to the arrangement, for no particular reason.



Hunting is allowed on this land, so Sarah had to be on her leash, but we'd arranged for her to have a chance to run and jump and let off steam before taking to the trails with her, and she handled it all very well.


Wildlife, of course, is not restricted to the trails. These tracks across the sand almost look like tracks in snow.


We had a good, long, wonderful walk through the woods, up and down and around and through, and our timing was perfect, too, because as we were leaving the parking area we could see a huge, dark cloud moving in from the west.




The cloud divided our view in half. To the west were dark cloud-covered skies, while to the east the sky was blue, sun bright, life still colorful.



We got home before the last sunshine disappeared, happy and tired in the pleasantest of ways, our minds turning toward the coziness of dinner in front of the fire on a November evening.