Enjoying Fall in the Midwest

First Stop was to Visit Scott and Ashley in Cincinnati. I made them stop along the side of the road to get a shot with these beautiful trees. Ashley and Scotts yard landscaping is what we worked on.

 

Scott and Ashley had some landscaping yardwork to help them with (because we asked them to). Above the rose bushes after they were pruned by Trish.

Here are the new bushes nicely planted and mulched. We added some purple mums to the left side of the yard.

When we got to Steve and Lindsey's, the first project on the agenda was to strip the pressboard off the garage walls.

Steve and Lindsey have an older home with a slate roof . Steve had been planning to get some tiles fixed. Its very complicated to work on since you cant lay on the roof. He ordered a special ladder and hooks that can be hooked on the top of the roof. Doug helped him finagel the ladder to the correct position so Steve could get to work.

I was bound and determined to do some raking despite the fact most had not fallen yet.

Doug is vacuuming the debris out of the wall from the crumbling brick mortar.

You can see the high tree over the garage that caused the damage when a limb fell down. Steve plans to get some more pruning done on these overhanging branches.

It was a two person job to get the ladder lined up on the peak of the roof.

I found some time to hit the local Art Space. A children's book exhibit was displayed with many types of media: pastels, oils, pen and ink, watercolor. It was a wonderful display.

You can see how much trash we gathered together between the vines on the garage, and pieces of the garage wall.

While we were at Steve's, Ashley and Scott ran the marathon in Columbus.

Scott ran right through Ohio State Stadium but forgot to get a picture.(Doug's request)

Hiking in the Great Smokies

For our fall break we traveled to the Midwest to visit our kids that live in Ohio. During the week we drove down south to Tennessee to hike the Smokies National Park. The first day we arrive was late afternoon so we enjoyed the fading sun with a short hike to see one of the many waterfalls in the park.

Laurel Falls

This hike was on a paved path and supposed to be super busy. Because we went late afternoon it was quiet.

The day was bright and sunny and the sun cast beautiful colors on the faraway trees.

Here is a view from opposite the falls , kind of a hanging pool of water running off downnthencliff edge.

Up into the sides of the trail were interesting mushrooms or fungus growing on a decaying log. The smells were musty and damp in the forest.