Julie - North Carolina - about 5:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Hey, look! I'm back! So... I really had NO CLUE how much my son going to Kindergarten was going to take over my life. I get up before the sun every day now, yet I still have less free time! How is that possible? Anyway... I'm still trying to manage my time better, but today after I saw that the next three days here are supposed to be cold and rainy, I wanted to get out no matter what! Leftovers were already on the dinner menu, anyway. :)

Here we go. We had to pause in the front yard to blow puffy dandelion heads. Shhh... don't tell my husband!!

I have been waiting almost since my first CF walk to take a picture of the "Foliage Drive" sign! The leaves have only just started to turn here, but I didn't want to wait any longer! Riley found a leaf that looked like it had an eye. In the bottom right photo, I was focusing on the yellow leaf so much, that I didn't notice until I uploaded my pics that the leaf beside it looks like some kind of freaky fish with its mouth open. The tree in the bottom left corner (with the reddish leaves) has appeared here before.

What would a CF shoot be like without a mushroom? Yep, it looks like a potato, but it is, in fact, a mushroom.

This has nothing to do with anything; it's just cool.

I look forward to "meeting" the newest walkers and hopefully organizing my life so I can be a regular here again! I've definitely missed you ladies!

Julie - North Carolina - 9:35 to 10:05 a.m.

I think I need to change my personality. I am way too slow and particular. I can easily spend twice as long going through and editing my photos as I do walking! I actually went on a walk last Thursday and never had time to sit down to edit and post my pics! (I also found a tick on myself afterwards... be sure to check yourself if you walk anywhere with lots of trees!) Of course, it would help if I didn't take 50-100 pictures each time...

This week and next are busy, busy, busy for me. In addition to school, church, soccer, and football, I'm the co-chair of our preschool's consignment sale, which is next week! I am determined to get in a few walks just for my sanity though! This morning I had a little kid-free time (after trying to rustle up more sale volunteers) and took a walk in the neighborhood around the preschool.

Good morning, moon!

"Planned" and "unplanned" beauty...

Donovan is into stickers right now. If he had a car, it would probably look about like this!

This car decor is more like my style.

These two houses are so out of place. I always laugh at them, though they do have some charm.

The sign appears to say that the rocks have their own security system. ;)

India?

This is more like it.

Where the sidewalk ends...

Have a great day! I'll be here as much as I can! Assuming I survive, I really want to walk a lot more after the sale is done!

Julie - North Carolina - 11:20 to 12:12

My life is basically divided between the city of Winston-Salem and the town of Kernersville. Today I had some things to do over in K'ville so when that was done Donovan and I parked along Main Street (every town needs a Main Street, don't ya think?) and went for a walk in the historic district. After our rainy weekend the weather has been absolutely perfect! Sunny, clear, breezy, highs in the mid-70s. I love it! Since the first of my errands was donating blood, I planned to walk at a somewhat easy pace... which I think would've happened anyway because I took so many pictures! I did walk at a pretty good clip on the way back to the car, when I noticed that Donovan's head had started lolling to the side...

A little sampling of historic homes:

I wonder how old some of these trees are. I really liked the sidewalk going around the big trunk. Haley, I thought the knothole kind of looked like a lopsided heart, and I thought of you. It also reminded me of one of my favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird.

I call this the "quaint collage." I wonder what "Slices of Heaven" are... they sound fattening. I got the biggest kick out of the workmen's shoes outside the interior design showroom. I was thinking a lot about all of you as I walked, mentally captioning each photo for you. I wish we could all sit at one of these tables and have lunch!

This is "Körner’s Folly," the most famous building in K'ville and a symbol of the town itself. It has 3 floors, 7 levels, 15 fireplaces, and numerous oddities. Restoration is a constant process. In true small town form, as I walked by I realized I knew the contractor on site and we waved and said "hey" to each other across the street.

There are many Moravian churches in this part of the state. The one in K'ville has two sanctuary buildings - an older, smaller one and a newer, larger one. Today's the first time I noticed the weathervanes with the dates "1867" and "1992" atop the steeples.
This is the backside of the Moravian church (the older sanctuary is on the left) and its cemetery. Moravian churches refer to their cemeteries as "God's Acre." I hope it's not too strange that I love cemeteries. They're so peaceful and green and beautiful. I love reading the names and dates and wondering about each person that walked here before me.

This is the backside and cemetery of the Methodist church (also two sanctuaries!), just a block away from the Moravian church. Right as I approached, the carillon tolled twelve and then played several hymns. The first one was "He Leadeth Me" - an appropriate soundtrack for my walk!

Uh-oh... I was afraid this would ruin Donovan's nap at home. Instead, it was just the beginning of it! When we got home, I put him in the bed and he slept until 2:00!
You'll never believe what I did, though... After I put Sleeping Beauty in the car, I drove away with my stroller still on the sidewalk, and I didn't realize it until after he woke up!!! Thankfully, it was right outside a church (the one in the "tree collage"), and someone there spotted it outside and brought it in! Whew!

Julie - North Carolina - 9:35 to 10:20

Good morning! We survived our first week of Kindergarten! Riley did not ride the bus Thursday, but he did yesterday and liked it! Hooray! So that plus getting a walk by myself put me in a really good mood this morning.

Starting out... I took this one from my driveway.

At the end of my street looking back. We got some much-needed rain yesterday, and the grass seemed to return to green overnight.

I think these two pear trees have more pears than leaves!

I was briefly sidetracked by a yard sale. I got these two pretties for 50 cents! Fortunately I wasn't far from my house so I hurried back home for some change, and for this quick pic. October is my absolute favorite month!

I love this tree. I have photographed it before, but not posted it. The cat let me know today was the day to share!

My Southern Living Garden Book calls the Bradford pear "the South's most overplanted tree."

This little suncatcher just made me happy.

I would not have noticed this apparently dead tree between the green ones if it weren't for the cawing crows.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

Julie - North Carolina - 9:15 to 10:00 a.m.

This morning I went for a walk as soon as I got home from taking my older son, Riley, to Kindergarten. Today was his second day, and for the second time his teacher had to hold him back as I left. I suppose a minor improvement was made in that today's crying was more muted, whereas the first day's crying was hysterical. (I mean him...) So it was with a heavy heart that I set out around the neighborhood with Donovan, and I didn't know what I would find to take pictures of.






It felt really strange to push just one child in my double stroller.












Even though I almost never see anyone on this playground, it still seemed extra-empty.





Then when I saw the tree below, I knew what I wanted to look for: things that Riley would think are funny. The tree trunk looks dead, yet it has that one hearty branch sticking out like it's raising its arm and saying "I'm still here!" The cone looks like it just gave up, doesn't it? I think the chimpanzee bird feeder used to hang up, but now it's sitting in the shade in an awkward position. I'm certain I've never seen a pennant nailed to a tree before, but they have the right team so it's all right. ;) My favorite, though, is the mailbox held together with duct tape. I don't live far from the bustling downtown of a city, but there's no doubt this is a country road.

This house was funny for two reasons. The window with the missing shutters first got my attention, and if it hadn't, I might not have noticed the red Frisbee stuck in the gutter! Riley would have thought that was hilarious!
I was a little more happy and a lot more sweaty when I pushed back up my driveway. Riley is supposed to ride the bus home today and he is extremely afraid. He is shy of strangers and terrified of the unknown. Please say a little prayer for him! Thanks!

Julie - North Carolina - 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. yesterday

Oh my gosh y'all, I am still alive, and I'm so sorry I haven't been around for the last week. Things got so stressful here and yesterday was the most stressful of all! Nothing seemed to happen at the right time or in the right way. I didn't even get to bed until about 4:00 a.m. So anyway... My walk was the only peaceful time I had all day, and I owe it all to Cindy and Hayley for starting CF! Thank you, ladies! Please don't kick me out yet! :)

I walked back up the road to the cattle farm. Two of the three hay wagons had been emptied, but one was still loaded. It is incredible how something as light and wispy as dead grass can be made into something so huge and heavy. I also noticed how shiny the cows looked in the morning sun and humid air!

I cropped this picture up close so you can see the cow's tongue!

It must have rained a little during the night before. I took these three of the sky reflected in a puddle.

A few flower pictures. I didn't see until I got home and uploaded my pics that there's an ant crawling on the magnolia bloom in the top right corner. It made me chuckle!
I hope you're all having a good week! Today is my older son's first day of Kindergarten... he was crying his little eyes out when I left... but now... silence! (Well, except for the dryer.) I still have a ton to do today but at least I have a little bit of solitude to do it in! I really look forward to catching up on everybody's posts soon. The new layout looks great! The border of polaroids is so cute!

Julie - North Carolina - 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Today the boys and I drove over to a park I've been wanting to explore. It's just a lake with a trail that goes all the way around it - almost 7 miles! At first I was hoping to make it to the "2" before turning around, but I had to stop so many times to take pictures of things (both by my choice and Riley's... since we weren't taking pictures of private property, I indulged most of his requests) that it took 40 minutes to get to the "1" and I was sweaty and hungry so we turned back. I was extremely glad to see the parking lot again, so I'm glad I didn't try to go any further! Maybe I'll work my way down more of the trail when it stops being so blazing hot.


Before we got started we had to check out this bank at the trail head. There were dozens and dozens of at least 4 different kinds of waterfowl all hanging out together.









The dappled light on the trail made it unexpectedly hard to get pictures in focus (to flash or not to flash?), but it made pretty shadows.










We saw various flora (including my personal favorite, sassafras trees, and what Riley called "talking trees" - ones that appear to have faces in their bark!)...

...and fauna (if you look really closely at the lower turtle picture you'll see that I also caught 2 dragonflies in the photo! One is a blur in flight, but it still counts!).

I also let Riley take some photos. He must belong in this group, because he really likes taking pictures of trees.


Last but not least... Riley making a smile like the "talking tree" behind him. :)

Julie - North Carolina - 5:10 to 5:40 p.m.

I am embarrassed to admit how hard I am finding it to alter my routines... especially the going to bed earlier part (and as a consequence, the getting up earlier part). (It is now 11:00 p.m. at my house and this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and look at my photos...) Our whole family is working on going to bed and getting up earlier with Kindergarten starting next week, and I just today realized I will have to wake my son up at 6:45 in order to make sure his slow-moving morning self (takes after me...) can get dressed, fed, and out the door on time. Blech! I will be so glad when we really settle into things. Today we just had so much going on that I finally had to tell the boys to get in the stroller because mommy needed a walk! We took a quick trip around and back home. I must say that both boys enjoy riding in the stroller and don't give me trouble trying to get out or anything. The only problem was my 5-year-old kept complaining that I wasn't taking pictures of the things he wanted me to take pictures of (like the dog in the yard with about 5 people... I really didn't want to point my camera anywhere towards this group of people I didn't know!). Anyway, here we go:

The sky here was crazy. These two pictures were taken one right after the other, and I did not move at all except to turn around:

Isn't that wild? Perhaps even more crazy is that I've passed this crepe myrtle every time I've gone anywhere for the past 3 years, and today was the first time I've noticed it has both white and pink flowers.

I love it when this cattle farm has all their hay bales stacked and ready to go. I hope I can get a closer and clearer shot sometime before they move them, but this is a very busy street at 5:30 and I was ready to get onto a side street.

The tractor parked under the eave of the barn reminded me of my childhood and my grandfather's farm.

An unexpected "mini-theme" presented itself: Things stuck in power lines!

Here are my two silly goobers!

Here's hoping for a great week!