WTD#20 - Fall Again

Yes, I guess it is still fall, technically, and we are enjoying a mild spell for early December, but I'm sure the snow is not far off.  Dawg and I have been enjoying our walks in the hills and valleys around home, when we can find time between those last minute chores that always seem to pile up against the impending winter.

These trembling aspen were in full autumn regalia on a hillside in the Pass Creek area.

Aspens provide a brilliant backdrop for a solitary lodgepole pine sapling.

Inside the aspen grove.

Aspen leaves with water droplets.

Ocean spray with seedheads and a few remaining leaves.

More ocean spray.

I'm a sucker for backlit thimbleberry leaves.

Like I said.

The elders have lost their leaves but not their berries.

Leaves and berries along the rail trail, with the Slocan River in the background.

Poison ivy on the edge of the rail trail.

The trumpeter swans have returned to the Slocan River up near Lemon Creek.  This family of two adults and four juveniles allowed me to get quite close for some photos.

It was encouraging to see that four cygnets had survived in this family.  Altogether we estimated forty or fifty swans in the river here - just a guess though.

There is something magical about these birds - they figure so prominently in our mythology and art for a reason, I suppose.  Something almost archtypical about them that reaches a deep region of our being.  What do you think Dawg?

I think you must be some kind of swannabe - arf, arf, arf!