Impromptu Hike

On Saturday we were asked by some good friends if we wanted to go on a hike. It was cold out and windy, there had been a sprinkling of snow the night before and we had just returned on Friday from Thanksgiving in the States, however, due to overwhelming positive response from the younger people of varying sizes in the household, I reluctantly agreed. Don't get me wrong, I love hiking. However, I always do it with the aid of my better half, my taller and skinnier half, the half that can run and keep up with children, the half that carries the smallest of the clan when she gets overly whiny, that half was sleeping and couldn't come. Upon this was I reluctant. However, they needed to be out, to expend energy and having good friends along more or less clinched it. It had been my intention to go to the library and the craft store in the hour before we had to be there. I'm not sure what made me think we'd have time for that. Perhaps it was that all the good turkey from Thanksgiving had made me loose my mind, perhaps I was just tired and not thinking straight, whatever it was, by the time I had everyone pottied (spell check says that's not a word) and in warm coats (there was a certain 11 year old boy here who though all he needed was a light jacket and his short sleeved shirt in the barely 34 degree weather with an added wind chill!) with gloves and hats and whatnot, it was time to hit the road and try and make it there on time.
  I did manage to remember to bring a camera and my first aid kit in my messenger bag. The camera I brought was Mikes though and I was unaware that the batteries in it were pretty near dead. I was able to take 4 pictures! If you have been keeping tabs on us through this blog you must realize by now that to be given such a small number of pictures was heartbreaking. Such things should just not be so. However, Sebastian had brought his camera and took some photos, so, the first 4 are mine, the rest are Sam's. Thank you Sam. :-)

Here is the snow! It was only left where the sun hadn't hit it in the morning. It was enough to excite the children! Caleigh spent most of the time WITHOUT gloves picking it up and making it into balls and licking it or throwing it at people. How she managed with as cold as the weather was and as much colder than that that the snow was to be able to spend hours picking up snow and handling it without her hands turning black and falling off I will never know.

More snow, that's Eva there in the blueish-green coat. She had mittens on at this point. That didn't last long. She was trying to handle the snow but found it cumbersome with the mittens on, so, the mittens came off! We put them on several times after that, but never for long and she'd give them back.

Here's the little cutie! She had a pink hat on under her hood, but it was too big and kept falling over her eyes. She didn't appreciate that and the warmth of the hat wasn't enough enticement to keep it on vs not being able to see. So, the hat stayed in my bag the rest of the trip. She did keep checking on it though, she made sure at periodic intervals that I still had it.

And here is my last photo. I found out shortly after this that there was, sadly, no battery life left in the camera. Way out yonder there is Ruth and Jay. They are friends that homeschool their boys. This hike was their idea. :-) Thank you Ruth!

After a bit of hiking (a bit longer for me and Eva since she was hard to motivate) we came across a bevy of birds that were eager to partake in the seeds that Ian had so fortuitously brought with him. There were nuthatches and chickadees galore! The kids had a ball and Ian graciously shared his seeds. This is Ian here. He's 11 like Sam. He's trying to convince a hesitant nuthatch to partake of his free seeds. The nuthatch was not so easily convinced.

This is Ian with a friendly chickadee on his hand. They were more than willing to take his seeds.

Here is Caleigh feeding a friendly, neighborhood chickadee. She's an exuberant bird feeder. She LOVES feeding birds and feels personally slighted if they go to eat from someone else's hands. You see Aurora in the green jacket between Ian (boy in black) and Caleigh? She is actually trying to feed birds! This is a momentous occasion. She has here-to-fore NEVER seriously tried to feed birds. She would make half-hearted attempts, but never REALLY tried and guess what....

SHE DID IT!!! See that tiny little chickadee on the edge of that blue, gloved hand? That's Rora!!! That's her little head with the black hat on. SHE DID IT!!! YA!!!! She wouldn't try it without gloves on, but she did it!! Maybe someday she'll manage to trust the birds to land on her bare hand, but until then, we're headed in the right direction! Aurora is finally a bird feeder!!!

This is Joshua's hand. Joshua LOVES Rora and Caleigh. They all get along so well. Joshua is 6, he's a sweet little boy. He's a good bird feeder too.

I'm not sure who this is, I think it's Sam and Caleigh is in the background. She decided to try to attract birds somewhere else since all the taller kids were hogging the birds right here.

And here is our last picture. This is a woodpecker I believe. It's kind of hard to tell being back lit and all, but there he is.

Thank you for coming to visit us again. I want to make a special shout-out to my grandfather. "Hi Grandpa!!" We had a great visit with him and Grandma and Aunt Kim while we were down on Thanksgiving. It was great to see you guys. :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Cherry Hill Gate- With a WHOLE Lot of Friends!

Hello again!
    This last Friday we went to Cherry Hill Gate again with a ton of people! All told I'm not sure how many people were there, I didn't get to count. I would estimate about 35 people all together, give or take a couple here or there. :-)
  We weren't the only ones there though, there were plenty of other people too. We got some okay pictures, but it was chilly and it wasn't a good picture day for anyone. Here's what we got though.

All the way down the hill before I even get a photo snapped! This is Jennifer and a couple of her kids. Hi Jen!

They were some adventurous kids! This set of tree roots is a kid magnet. We have yet to pass them without children climbing all over them!

Even the little one had to get in on it!

 This is Ruth. She is a dear friend. She and her family just got back from the Caymans at the end of last month. We're so glad they're back!

Caleigh hasn't always been such an adventurous soul. She didn't fuss once! She just climbed up and climbed down without even asking for help. Bravo!

Here she is, walking to catch up to the others. Believe it or not, there are some behind us, not many, but some. There are MANY in front of us though.

The green here is about the only green left down there. I'm kind of surprised that into November that there's still this much green! If you look back on some of the other hikes we've taken to Cherry Hill (there have been many), the scenery sure has changed. It was bare in April, it changed to lush greenness, the reds and golds came and went and now the trees are barren again for the most part. The ducks are still here though!

Here are some of the people who came with us. In the third picture down, you can see a whole bunch of people in the background, they're with us too. Like I said, LOTS of people!

As you can see, there were many kids making attempts at feeding the birds. Many were successful, some were not. The birds had to be getting full, I imagine that birds around Cherry Hill store up quite a lot for winter with all the people coming and bringing them seeds. The kids sure had fun feeding them! We saw chickadees, nuthatches, a couple different kinds of woodpeckers, sparrows, cardinals, blue jays and perhaps some others. They were all interested in storing up for the winter, they weren't all interested in doing it by hand though.

Look at them all! In the picture above the one here at the bottom you can see two boys with Mike. The one without the hat is Sam, the one with the hat is Ian. He's one of Ruth's sons. He is a great and true friend of Sam's. They really enjoyed spending time together.

Can you see the muskrat? It's above the boy's head. It's the best picture I have of it. It was hard to get in very close to get them.

This is a picture BEFORE I put the polarizing filter on the lens of the camera.

This is after. Big difference huh?

The cardinals weren't being very cooperative with picture taking. They kept flying off!

This little sparrow wasn't too cooperative either.


As the hike went on the kids (many of them) decided to get ambitious and climb a rather dauntingly steep hill. The older boys had no trouble with this, some of the others did. Big boys to the rescue! They enjoyed rescuing the little kids, believe me.

See the bits of color through the trees? It wasn't this steep, it's the angle of the camera.

Still, the angle of the camera.

That's more like it! See, it was only moderately steep, not a 90 degree angle.

Many made it to the top, some more than once! They really enjoyed this, most of them anyway.

Caleigh toward the end. She was glad to be going home. It was getting chilly(er) than it was at the beginning. If you held still too long the wind kind of cut through you.

Mike took this, it's Caleigh feeding a woodpecker! She was very excited.

Sam took this one and the next one. These were at the end of the hike, right before we left. I'm not sure how the boy in the red is, the one with the camera is Ian.

This is the end. Eva is sitting with Joshua. Josh is Ian's little brother. He's 6. He and Eva get along very nicely.

It was a great trip, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.