We've had a week of autumn rain...not the drama of summer thunderstorms, with claps of thunder that cause you to spring from your bed in alarm, or the endless rolls that sound as if giants are bowling down your valley...this is saturation. A long drink after a hot summer.

 I love it. It suits my autumn-is-upon-us mood, introverted and a bit awkward. The rain is shelter and does not demand anything from me.

 Today was spent with one of our favorite people, and after a raucous rendition of Singing In The Rain (a favorite of theirs), and some serious cut-and-paste collage work, they let me coax them outside for a hike, in the non-rainy day.

 It was green. Quiet. Glorious.

 This is pretty much what I saw of them for a while...waaaaay up there ahead of me. They are good hikers though and stopped when they came to a fork in the path, to make sure I was keeping up.

 And occasionally there'd be a "ooh! ooh! let's wait for your mom! she's GOTTA take a picture of this!" For good reason...

 The shoes were quickly left behind, toes managing better purchase on the mossy boulders. And oh, the mud. Mmm hmm, unavoidable, might as well enjoy it.

 I was much slowed by the call of the fungus, and the occasional funky leaf gall.

 Mama, I'll have time with you again later, 'k? I am still with youuuuuu she says, running off into the distance. I love you too, baby, and the silence is welcome, just for a few minutes.

 The world of fungus is so mysterious to me. So much marine-life and extraterrestrial, all in one.

 I felt as though I'd stumbled on treasure, glimpsing the piercing color of these little shells along a log. How easily missed, and how stunning.  I love my camera, but was frustrated at not being able to really feel as though I were entering their space at all. Too close, and my camera seems to say I don't know what you're talking about, what brilliant blue fungus? See? Just fuzz, nothing here...

 I'll figure it out. And in the meantime...can you believe how blue this is???? Sigh.

 The day ended with such fun - we came home to make ice cream in our roll-and-shake-that-ball contraption that Mormor gave us (it works!!! it makes YUMMY ice cream, and it didn't take as long as I'd thought it might!), play play and play, and then to entrap The Parents with promises of Friday Family Night, complete with local fried chicken and Star Wars (which, by the way, most of us parents saw when we were seven - one of us was too ahem young, and it wasn't me - and it is difficult to stay quiet and not giggle constantly at how whiny little Luke is, when your kids are absorbing it for the first time!).  Such was the happy end to our week and the beginning of our week's end...