Silence and Stillness

I've been thinking a lot about silence and stillness. I live in a fairly quiet area, but I can still hear the sounds of traffic on the road below us, a neighbor mulching his leaves, an occasional jet passing high above, dogs barking, and children playing. 

When I really want silence and stillness I usually go somewhere and that somewhere always seems to involve water. There is something about the colors and rhythms of water that soothes my soul. Today I'm going to be silent and just show you the quiet, still places I found this past week. Enjoy!

'The world is quiet here."

~Lemony Snicket

Hiking In The Snow

There are things in our life that we want to do, but circumstances don't always allow them to happen. Such was the case with my desire to get a picture of the Old Mill in the snow. I've wanted to do that for years, but it's in an area with hilly roads that become slick in snowy/icy weather. Finally, I was able to get there in the snow. The roadways were clear, but the snow was still on the ground. I knew it had to have been much prettier the day before when all those trees were covered in snow, but instead of feeling disappointed I decided to just accept what it was and be thankful that I got there at all!

My sister was with me and we decided we weren't ready to head home. We were enjoying the snow and the sunshine, so we headed to Pinnacle Mountain State Park. In the picture above Pinnacle is in the distance covered in snow.

Near the visitor's center is a beautiful quarry. I don't know what type of minerals are in this water, but it is a beautiful blue/green. Beginning at the quarry is a trail that we've never hiked. We debated whether to hike it for about, oh, five seconds and then we hit the trail.

We realized as we began walking that no one had walked the trail since it had snowed. We couldn't decide it that was cool thing or if maybe others knew better than to walk the snowy trail.

As we went deeper in the woods, the trail became less visible under the snow. If the trail had not been marked so well with green paint on the trees, we would never have competed it. Who knows where we would have wound up. At least, we knew we couldn't get lost, we only had to turn around and follow our footsteps out.

There is just something so magical about hiking in the snow. It's amazingly quiet. Sometimes the only sound was the water flowing down several small creeks that we had to cross. 

After seeing all the snow in other parts of the US, it makes me very grateful that when it snows, it's usually only small amounts; six inches this time. Our lives return to normal pretty quickly!  Of course, there's nothing normal about Arkansas weather!  It was up in the 60's today and will be close to 70 tomorrow! 

Walking and Talking

The trails of Pinnacle Mountain were calling my name. Oh, not the trail that leads up the to the mountain peak which is over 1,000 feet of strenuous and rocky climbing, but the Arboretum trail which wanders through acres of plants and trees. It's still a little early here for fall colors, so most of the paths were covered in browns with the occasional scattering of reds and yellows under the maples.

My sister and I are doing a series of tree photos and we knew the Arboretum trail would give us a good variety of trees. We were not disappointed. 

There was some color, but you had to look up, way up to see it. Walking and looking up don't go well together! I was thankful that the paths were smooth or I would have been stumbling all over the place. I'm not quite as stable as we used to be!

I know I'm rushing things, but it really should be fall weather here. We were in the 90's today which broke a record. This is just not right!  We should be wearing jackets. We need a good frost and a good rain or our fall will be dull and brown. 

One of the trails we followed led to the banks of the Little Maumelle River. There was some pretty fall color reflecting in the water.

We were amazed at the height of the trees. The tree tops were gorgeous with the sun shining through the leaves. My favorite was the Cyprus trees. Their needle-like leaves seem to glow in the sun. 

It has been so dry here that the water in the river where the Cyprus grow is very low. The Cyprus knees, which help stabilize the massive trees and are normally in the water, were on dry land. These trees have been here a very long time, hopefully this drought will not cause any damage. I imagine they've seen drought years many times.

Although we didn't see a lot of fall colors, we did take a lot of pictures for our tree series and we did have a wonderful day of walking and sister talk.