I’ve noticed that since the early summer, I’ve gotten out of the habit of biking or walking to work. This is an absolutely ridiculous thing to have happen because I live a mere 1.5 miles from work, so it’s a snap to hop on my bike or shimmy down the street. I could go on with a list of excuses, but suffice to say that I’m working to change back into a non-car commuter. So this past week things worked out and I walked to work on a frosty morning, which was ever so delightful because it gave me a chance to slow down and view things from a different perspective. I got to take an up close and personal view of this guy:

And this guy!

And these little ones!

And a frosty hedge!

I mean, do you see how the light is hitting that hedge? And imagine some glittery frost business with that? Unbelievable. I would have totally missed out on this if I had traveled by car. (And even by bike, most likely. I’m usually eyes forward.)

Last, as I neared my destination, I found a frosty rose bush that looked so beautiful, shimmering.

It was a great way to get to work and it really put a smile on my face. It was a much nicer way to start the day than to be scraping frost off my car and waiting for the light to turn green.

How are you getting to work this week? What little things are you noticing?

In Tennessee, I saw a LOT of giant crosses near the interstate. Behold:

This picture doesn’t do it justice because it is GINORMOUS. And there’s more than one of these looming around Tennessee.

One of my favorite things to do is to go walking. Walking through the woods, walking through the city, walking with a friend, walking with Isabel. Walking, walking, walking. Walking is completely relaxing for me. And walking is slow enough that you can stop to check something out, or get a more detailed view of a place than you could driving or riding in a car. Granted, you can’t go as far as fast, but walking helps me get to know a place more intimately. Walking and talking is also one of my favorite things, but that’s for another post. Here I want to talk about the discoveries made while walking in Philly.

First, Nikkie, Isabel and I hiked a trail near her house and found bouldering! Ahhh!

How awesome to have a bit of climbing so close to home.

We also discovered Halloween flamingos, which are awesome:

And then real flamingos at the zoo:

And we discovered that the Wissahickon Trail is just beautiful in general:

I’m a little behind, but last week we spent two days in Pittsburgh. We found the Hot Dog Dam in Frick Park:

…and also a beautiful tree not ready to relinquish its leaves:

We’ve taken two sunrise hikes, both to Auxier Ridge here in the Red River Gorge. If you get a chance to make the hike, I recommend it. The ridge is positioned north-south, so it’s easy to watch an eastern sunrise and western moonset (and western sunset in the evening). The first time Heather and I weren’t sure we had the right trail, so we watched the sunrise from an overlook close to the parking lot:

Then we hiked up to the actual ridge, which took about 35 minutes. Isabel enjoyed the ridge: