November Gold

We've been lucky so far with any real winter conditions kept at bay; and the mild temps allowed us to take a couple late afternoon rides recently. By 'late afternoon' these days, we're talking 3-ish to 5-ish until daylight savings comes back around...

But for now that's where the 'Golden Hour' can be found...



Hatfield the other day was providing some nice warm scenery right about that time, as we rolled through...





I don't know if it's the rich floodplain soil around this area, but there is still a surprising amount of rich, dark greenery in the fields here...



The Old Mill Bed & Breakfast, being just that, -an old mill- is ideally located over some falls which constantly provide that relaxing sound of running, falling water...



A few days before that Hatfield ride, we had taken a walk on the Amherst end of the Norwottuck, during a similar nearly-sunset time frame.



This time it was over wetlands.





These wetlands are always beautiful, in all times of year. While many tenacious plants along the trail side hold on to their energy collecting leaves as long as they can,



...the dead trees over the beaver-induced wetlands are always bare and compellingly stark...



...especially as the sun recedes...



It was pretty quiet on that warm afternoon, but not a woodpecker or beaver or heron was to be seen...





I imagine the birds and other wildlife were out taking advantage of the temps to get some extracurricular food hunting in. These guys stuck close to home though...



And we decided it was time to get close to home ourselves...