The Treasures of a Hike

I love how these photos flow, so I wasn't going to include any ramblings, but...eh, that's too hard for me, so...Sunday morning hike, me and the girls, just glorious. E: "It is really overgrowed! So much more than the last time we were here, it's just lush and beautiful!"  Anika kept trying to catch the small blue butterflies, to no avail (but it was like watching a kitten try to catch a spot of light! very entertaining), and then one alighted on Eliza's thumb.  She said "Oh mom, I am in heaven."  This path tends to be muddy, so the girls were happy to take off their shoes and wade on through, in lieu of pressing against the poison-ivy edges of the path.  While they explored a creek, I sat in the pine needles, watching the lake and the fish jumping, poking around for the small bits we miss as we crash on through.  We came home with some aquatic plants for the toad-poles, a papery bit of a wasp's nest, several glittery stones (you can see them in E's shoes), and some fungus and ferns for more spore-printing (I'll share if they turn out) - and a little ease in our step, having breathed the pines and followed the fairies for a while.

(That is a picture of more galls on the leaves - I'll try and figure out what they are, but they looked like gummy candy, bright red, melted in drops on the leaves. I'd never seen them before.)