a walk in the park.

...that I love hembree park is no secret, but I was surprised I hadn't posted about seeing the change in seasons there since last summer. note to self - the park deserves four seasonal posts each year!

so it's a bit of serendipity that holly and I took a walk there yesterday afternoon and captured a bit of early fall, 2011. I usually teach class on monday evenings and these past few months it's been hotter than hot; even if I had the time for a walk, I'd rather be indoors. but yesterday, it seemed like fall. the morning was actually cloudy and a bit chilly, but by 4:30 the sky had cleared to a bright blue, there was a slight breeze and it was about 72 degrees. (when I go to heaven, that's what I imagine the weather will be like...unless I've just finished an alpaca sweater and then it will be about 32 degrees...I digress...)

I had my camera. holly had the breeze. we walked. a man strolled by while holly was checking out the leaves around a tree trunk. he said "this is going to be a long walk..." I said "yep!" *SMILE!* because really, what better way to spend an hour!

and - as always! - I was amazed by what I saw. I spend at least a few hours in this park every week. I hope one day to be such a great noticer that I'm not surprised when I slow down and look...or maybe I don't. (and for the record, I had noticed the beautyberries and the pears and the leaves before the walk!)

here's what we saw - the soundtrack is leaves rustling in that light breeze, the crack of metal baseball bats against balls and the occasional yell.

the uphill path, looking up... this is my favorite direction to run, but I love to walk it downhill

the sole mystery sighting... the outer covering resembled raspberries last week - cleary, they're not!

sap on birch tree (confirming that amber is one of my favorite stones)

beautyberry - I always thought this was a fall show, but wikipedia says no, it's actually summer...which explains why we saw so much of it in rosemary beach!

the best color we saw

the pears... looking good despite the drought and the heat

pecans (really, we have pecans?!)

and acorns - I see them in abundance on the ground, but not usually on the tree

the last photo I took...a fitting end to our early fall walk.