Celebrating the coming of Fall at the Preserve

Lovely peaceful hike on the Preserve today, to celebrate the arrival of the equinox, taking in the lakeshore, and the farm track and the trail through the beechwood then back up beside the field.

So many different sights and sounds and views in a tiny area of wilderness. 

An artist quietly painting by the lakeside, to my surprise, since she's in what I thought was my own preserve, never saw anyone down that little path to the water before. 

 

And realized that they have widened the trail so much that it can be seen from the farm track, which explains her discovery.

While I was down there, I spotted, far across the water, an egret perched in a tree above the lake.  Unusual to see one there, in fact to see one at all, perhaps a fall visitor on his way somewhere.

Then through the lovely green shade of the beechwood, with birds flittering about ignoring my presence. 

Interesting circles of tree stumps, probably felled because they're about to come down anyway

huge fungi on this old tree, and what look like ferns marked with flags, perhaps they're rare, this being a place with quite a lot of protected flower and plant species.  

 And here's a really aggrieved sawn off tree stump.


Then out along the track where fox and deer like to live.  In fact I saw a doe with two fairly young deer a few minutes before I went to that trail.  I also saw what looked like a fox scat, pretty fresh, but I didn't see the scatter. 

 Fallen leaves starting to turn color.

 
Then back across the edge of the field, full of butterflies -- no big ones this year, but tiny yellows and whites -- and wildflowers.

And so home for a cup of tea and a nice muse over what I saw this afternoon.  And over what I cooked this morning. My life is just one long mad round of unalloyed joy!  and this evening it's "Endeavor" on DVD, with a nice glass of red.