Other Pretty Nature Scenes of October

 As Anne Shirley famously said, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

October sunrise 😍

I spotted this beautiful monarch butterfly on the sidewalk when I was out walking one day. I tried to move it to the grass, but it refused my help. I think it was dying. (Sorry, I didn't want to tell you that part because it detracts a bit from the beauty of the picture.)

Red berries and pine...the holidays were on their way!

I went for a really nice walk in the woods of the town next door with a big group of people on a mild and perfect October Saturday morning. We went to the famed "witch caves" where a few of the accused "witches" from Salem are said to have hidden and taken refuge when they escaped from Salem. 

A lot of the caves have collapsed but you can definitely see how people (including the Native Americans) could have used them. It was very cool and I definitely want to go back to explore them some more.

I climbed up the whole cave system to the very top. I should have worn my hiking sneakers instead of my regular sneakers! It was a good workout and some of my muscles were sore the next day.

Views from the top:

See the group down below? Most of them weren't intrepid enough to hike to the top of the caves (I'm not saying that in a judgmental way!), but a few of us were. 

I love the woods of New England! They're full of history, mystery, and great natural beauty.

Festive mums in a fun pot at my friend Laurie's house

A classic old barn

I didn't take this picture but I've been to this mill and I can appreciate the beauty of this picture of it in the fall!
I actually work with the daughter of the man who runs it.

{Production note! My trusty old desktop computer has been dying a slow death that I've been trying to ignore for months but I can ignore it no longer. 😭 So my blogging has finally migrated to my laptop, which I have not been looking forward to—I much prefer working on a desktop. A large part of my life revolves around my computer work (editing, email, blogging, pictures, working on church callings, etc.), and the way I do things on the computer for all of these things has been upended as I try to figure out transferring files and software, next steps, etc. So if my posts are lacking in their usual brilliancy for awhile 😉, that's why. Well, at least partly anyway. Yeah, let's just blame that.😄}