November 25, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 3 Comments

Fall’s Last Hurrah

Clouds cover the sky in an opaque shroud of white. Still, here and there, trees and bushes cling to their last, colorful foliage, unwilling to succumb to the inevitable change of season.

Moonrise

The next day dawns cloudless and blue, but the sunlight that gilds the last, tenacious leaves is as cold as the gold it resembles. It will not do more than brush us with a reminder of warmth until this winter has come and gone.

The feathers of a cardinal provide camouflage amongst the last reds of autumn, but will soon stand out brighter than holly berries against bare white branches, frosted ground and whiter snow

The last golden foliage persists, fragile and tenacious, for a little while longer yet

Autumn’s last hurrah: Glorious scenes captured on camera as Britain moves towards winter – and colder weather (dailymail.co.uk): England’s Lake District, UK
Burning Bush (forestgardenblog.wordpress.com): near Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Season for brilliant leaves extended by fortuitous weather in Western Pennsylvania (triblive.com): Pennsylvania, USA

November 24, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 0 comments

Winter Is Coming

Towards winter…

A deer trail buried in a blanket of fallen leaves leads deeper back into the woods

Fallen trees stripped of their finery raise bony fingers towards a wintry sky

Autumn fading

A bleak treescape

We begin to see the forest’s bare bones. Winter is coming.

I hope you enjoy these links to other posts from bloggers around the world who’ve already felt the first winds of winter nipping at their toes. Have a cozy Sunday, everyone, and see you again soon.

Winter Stroll with the Whole Herd (leahyetter.wordpress.com): Wyoming
winter is here (grahy.fr): France
WInter is coming… (bikesbeerandbs.com): Planet Bike (well, Cleveland, actually)
‘winter is coming’ by Sebastian Wahlhuetter (500px.com): Himalayan outback

Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer

November 18, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 3 Comments

Wilder Woods Await

Wilder woods

For the first few weeks that I had my bicycle, I was content to limit myself to riding the portion of the Rocky Run Trail that runs through the woods behind my house. It’s three miles (that’s about 5 km) there and back, and that is not a short way, especially since it had been years since I’d ridden a bike with any regularity (Roman traffic was a little too scary for me to want to brave the busy streets around my house long enough to reach the cycle paths). However, I recently discovered that the trail continues on the far side of a large road about half a mile from my house – a fact I’d missed since the trailhead has been closed for construction ever since I moved here. So, I loaded my camera with fresh batteries, pumped up my tires and headed out to see what waited for me in the wilder woods on the far side of the big road.

The little stream I’d become accustomed to is no longer narrow enough to clear in one leap over on the far side of the road

What I found out was that the path I knew was twice as long as I had thought: nearly eight miles, there and back. The trailheads on the two sides of the big road were both closed, so it took me a while to find an entrance where I could pick it up on the other side. However, there were enough knowledgeable dog-walkers around to point me in the right direction, and I soon found myself in a much larger and less tame wood than the one I’ve gotten to know.

Beavers at work along the Big Rocky Run

A crimson cloak

This must be where trees from Tim Burton movies come when they retire

Detail of roots reflected

From the trail on the near side of the road, you can always see a house or two, somewhere off through the trees. However, in this new forest, there were places where I couldn’t see anything beyond woods and water. I road further on, and soon I found myself entering a place I hadn’t known existed, the Ellanor C. Lawrence Park.

This is the face of a happy explorer who’s just made a new discovery (well, new for me, anyway)

The Ellanor C. Lawrence Park's Walney Visitor Center, located inside an 18th-century farmstead

Cabell’s Mill, built circa 1753

I thought the deer I see when I’m out riding were the extent of the local wildlife. However, a sign on the board near the park’s visitor center, located in what was once the house of the miller who operated Cabell’s Mill, told me I shouldn’t be surprised to come across beavers, coyotes, foxes or copperheads (I wouldn’t mind avoiding that last one, but believe me, if I see any of them when the weather warms up again, you will be the first to know).

Here are some of the scenes from my ride back to the main road.

Dad watches our faithful steeds so I can document the moment when we arrive at destination

Of course, I had to share my discovery. Besides, I didn’t want Dad to feel left out after having seen the photos from the walk I took with Mom the other day. So, we had a weekend bike ride back to the farm a few days later.

This time, we saw some wildlife too, but of the tamer variety.

Thanks for coming along! That will be the last of the fall foliage bicycle rides, I think. The leaves are mostly brown now. I’ll keep going out – until I’d need snow tires, anyway – but I doubt there will be much to photograph. I hope you’ve enjoyed our excursions through the autumn woods, and that you’ll come back and visit soon to see what other adventures are in store.

Yes, my dad and I are happy explorers – and goofballs

Until then, here’s wishing you some glorious adventures of your own.

My faithful buddy prefers to stay home and explore the backyard

-Jennifer

The Woods Are Lovely, Golden and Deep (adventuresofanexpatreturned.com)
Deeper into the Woods (adventuresofanexpatreturned.com)
A Quick Autumn Hike Along an Extended Road Trip (autumnhiker.wordpress.com)
A Walk in the Woods (artteasemagazine.com)

November 15, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 0 comments

A Saturday Morning Walk in the Woods

We’re going to take a little break from the bike today and use our feet instead. On the first Saturday in November, I decided to take my mom – another veteran expat and fearless adventuress – on a walk to see some of the places in the woods that I’d been telling her about for so long. We got up early and slipped out while Dad and our faithful pooch were still sawing logs (dear foreign friends, that is one of the strangest English idioms, I know, but it means they were sleeping very soundly).

We ventured down into the forest, hoping for some perfect leaves for pressing, some fine morning sunlight for pictures, and perhaps even some encounters with the local wildlife. We managed to get all three.

A garland of oak leaves

The stream is gilded in the early morning light

Mom tries out my favorite bench

When we reach our halfway mark, we stop to rest at one of my favorite spots.

Remember the deer from my first post about the golden woods? I’d been telling Mom about them, and we were lucky enough to encounter them again. This time the doe was standing on the side of the trail, keeping watch while her young ones (too big to be fawns, too small to be full-grown) browsed the bushes down by the stream.

Our friend comes out to visit us again

She ignores us pointedly, hoping we’ll go away, but we’re forest tourists, so we stay awhile anyway and snap photos

When she thinks we’re gone, she decides to cross the trail and see what the neighbors have growing in their back yard. Oh deer, you’re going to get yourself in trouble this time.

Since we’re well-mannered forest tourists, we’ve got our cell phones switched to silent, but we figure Dad and pooch are probably up and wondering where we are by now, so we decide to head for home. We haven’t even gotten to the front door yet but we can already smell the breakfast cooking.

My dad makes a mean waffle

My dad is a master of all things brunch, and it’s just what we need after a walk in the cold November forest not long past dawn.

There was also bacon.
Need I say more?

Thanks for coming along! I wish I could send you along some those waffles and bacon, but I’ll have to settle for wishing you a great brunch, sometime this weekend. See you next time!

– Jennifer

Formerly expat gals
are always intrepid

The Woods Are Lovely, Golden and Deep (adventuresofanexpatreturned.com)
Deeper into the Woods (adventuresofanexpatreturned.com)

November 14, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 4 Comments

Deeper into the Woods

Ready to keep riding?

My faithful steed waits patiently while I get off to snap photos pick up the brightest, most freshly fallen leaves for pressing

The deeper I go into the woods, the brighter the leaves become. They are not only gold, but crimson and burgundy, lemon and ochre.

Infinite variety

In some places they are still green and in others already brown, crunching under my wheels and carpeting the gravel path so thickly that sometimes I’m not sure where the trail for people ends and where the deer path begins.

A carpet of leaves blankets the path ahead

Someone has put up a birdhouse. I see bright red cardinals flying around it, blending in with the colors of their surroundings, for once.

Someone has put up a birdhouse. Bright red cardinals fly around it, blending in with the colors of their surroundings at this one time of year .
They wouldn’t stay still for a picture, though.

Trendsetter

Trees of all sorts compete for attention on the banks of the stream

All dressed in shades of gold and green

Don’t forget to look down

Don’t forget to look up

Thanks for coming along yet again! Keep your bicycles well-oiled and ready to go, because we’re not done just yet. Until the autumn’s over, we’ve still got riding to do.

Until next time…

– Jennifer

The Woods Are Lovely, Golden and Deep (this is Part 1 of the article you just read, by Yours Truly, at adventuresofanexpatreturned.com) Virginia, USA
Autumn leaves (lullabyonabicycle.wordpress.com) The Hague, Netherlands
The 10 best places in Japan for autumn leaves (en.rocketnews24.com) Japan
Top 14 Spots for Autumn Color in Japan (japanesesearch.com) Japan
Ode to autumn (ladyfi.wordpress.com) Sweden
Cloudland Canyon: My Last Autumn Hike before Heading up North (autumnhiker.wordpress.com) Georgia, USA
Autumn in the Midlands (formativethinking.wordpress.com) England, UK
An Autumn walk on Mount Royal (montrealinpictures.com) Montreal, Canada
Colours of Autumn (scotnor.com) Norway

November 13, 2013 by anexpatreturned - 5 Comments

The Woods Are Lovely, Golden and Deep

The woods are lovely, ~~dark~~ golden and deep.

Those words kept running through my head as I watched the leaves beginning to turn in the woods behind my house. Only last week they were at the peak of their colorful glory, and shortly before that it seemed that they had just begun to lose their green.

Why does this qualify as a post for the Adventures of an Expat Returned? How is this a specifically newly-returned-to-America topic? Well, let’s begin with the fact that, while abroad, I nearly always lived in big cities. This means that I had very little access to nature except on weekend excursions, which were few and far between (that’s what happens when you work weekends). It is therefore relevant to my experience of returning to America, which has meant returning to live in a semi-rural area for the first time since I was a kid.

Umbrella pines on the Palatine Hill

Rome’s beauties tend to be of the architectural as opposed to the naturalistic variety. Of course, they do have some lovely public parks in Rome, my favorite of which was the Villa Borghese park (where you can find the famous Pincio Belvedere that is featured in pretty much any movie filmed in the Eternal City).

Your faithful writer sits atop a fallen umbrella pine near the outdoor hippodrome in Villa Borghese park

The umbrella pine is one of the symbols of Rome. It’s everywhere (although, having been brought over from North Africa during the time of the Ancient Roman Empire, it’s not truly native), it’s beautiful and it’s a conifer.

The steep, cypress-lined road that climbs to the Church of Santa Margherita above the famous little hill town of Cortona

If you think about it, Italy is famous for its conifers. Just think of Tuscany and what comes to mind? An avenue leading to a villa in the hills above Florence, perhaps, and it is lined with… cypresses, another gorgeous tree and, again, not deciduous.

Cypresses rise from behind every garden wall in here in the hills above Florence

Olive groves and cypresses are an integral part of the Tuscan hills’ distinctive beauty – and neither tree changes its colors in autumn

Despite having had access to places world-renowned for their beauty for many years, it had been a very long time since I’d seen the brilliant reds and yellows of a North American fall, the bright fiery shades of autumn I remember from my childhood.

And this is just my back yard. Imagine what it’s like down in the woods…

Lucky for me, I have my faithful steed…

…and a long and winding, well-kept trail…

…and woods wild and golden enough to satisfy your average hobbit’s sense of adventure

Further on, the golds begin to give way to a little more red

See the deer behind me? That’s how close (and tame) they were

I get off my bike to take a picture of those red leaves, and what should I see, not so very far off the trail?

Can you see mother doe in the background?

Can you see Mom in the background?

This is about as wild as it gets in the woods behind my house, but for someone who’s spent most of their life in the city, it qualifies as an adventure. And a little further along the trail…

A nice place to pause for awhile before our adventure continues

Thanks for coming along. Come back and visit soon for more rides through the autumn woods, as long as the leaves last.

– Jennifer

Villa Borghese (kcrobins.wordpress.com)
The two faces of Tuscany (bellotobarga.wordpress.com)
Roaming Roma – The perfect 24-48 hours in Italy’s ancient capital. (layoverescapades.wordpress.com)
The Golden Woods (scotnor.com)

And by the way, a big thank you to all of you who have followed and liked my blog lately. It’s great to have you here, and I hope you’ll keep on visiting!