Autumn Walk

My Hubby has been looking for an Edison phonograph for almost as long as we have been together. He recently found a table top model and it arrived last week. I love it! Listening to those old albums the way they were meant to be played is like going back in time. One of the Edison records we have been listening to on it is "My Blue Ridge Mountain Home". The song and a chill in the air inspired a day trip.
Wow! We drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina yesterday to look for Autumn color. According to Weather.com, the leaves up there have not reached their peak. We decided to go anyway as this weekend was convenient with school and work schedules. I am so glad we did.
The leaves have not all turned, many of them are still green. What we got yesterday was that moment of change. Autumn is here, but summer has not left yet. The color combination is amazing. The green is so vibrant and the reds and yellows just glow.
The sky was mostly cloudy for much of the day. Perfect photography weather. We walked two separate trails. The first was "Shut in Trail". It was quite pretty with lovely displays and even a few nice mushrooms. Pretty much what we expected. We walked a good bit of that trail then went back to the car for lunch.
Lunch was a fine Pepper Jack cheese on Rye and Pumpernickel swirl bread. A great combination that was followed by home made cookies. Numms.
We drove through clouds to get to the second destination, Laurel Mountain Trail. The trail head was misty so I put a plastic bag in my pocket and my camera spent part of the time in there. It was not actually raining, but the mist was quite thick in some areas. Everything looked freshly washed. The air is so fresh up there. I could smell the cedar trees.
I am awed at the beauty of the day. I took some very atmospheric photos, maybe some of the best I have taken so far. After we turned back, the sun came out. The mountainside looked like a tapestry. The temp was just a little chilly. I had my fuzzy black hoody to snuggle into and it was just right.
On the way home we stopped in Ashville. I popped into the bead shop and among other things, I found some "micro bugle" beads in "green iris". I don't know what I will do with them but they are pretty. (Good thing they were not expensive). Last stop on the way out of town was Starbucks. It is a long drive home and their coffee is always good.
In the car we listened to "WNCW" for as long as we could get the signal. There is something so right about listening to Blue Grass music, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.