March 18th, 2024

Guess who had a birthday last week?    If you said, Joy, you would be correct!    I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, because,  if you've been reading me long enough, you are well aware of the birthday rules (hint:  the birthday person gets to make all decisions) and she wanted to go for a hike.  Well that's easy!  We can do that!

I had to work on her actual birthday so instead we hiked the next day.   Which means this photo safari will be the called, "The Day After Her Birthday Hike".  

Once again, in keeping with the birthday rules, Joy chose where we hiked and her selection was a brand new place,  Thaxton-Scherer Preserver.    We knew very little about it and sometimes that is part of the fun.  Foolishly we assumed (and we knew what happens when we assume) that it would be a relatively small place and that once we finished up there we would move along to a second hiking spot. 

HAH!  Six miles later we dragged our weary butts to the car, giggling at our foolishness all the way.  It was a terrific hike in a beautiful new place that had well marked trails, bathrooms (!!) and decent parking.  Hard to ask for more than that.

Here are some photos that show some of the highlights:

First of all, thanks to the time change (and I wont' rant about how much I hate it) it was a little, oh, I hesitate to say dark so instead I will say, not very light, how's that?  But it was a pretty place that started out with a trail that circumnavigated a pond.

As the skies grew progressively lighter, we began to see birds:

The worst part of this preserve was it's location which was kind of trapped between two highways.  It was awhile before we stopped hearing the drone of traffic. On the other hand, there were plenty of distractions like beautiful botannicals:

But the thing I was most impressed with were the trees.  I am a big fan of trees, pretty much all trees, but there was something very special about this place with areas of pine trees that stretched back as far as we could see.  It felt a little like something out of a child's Fairy Tale. I kept expecting to see Hansel and Gretel skipping through the forest.

As always there are some rando's for you. My most favourite category:

So there you have it, the Day After Her Birthday Hike wherein, we celebrated the birthday of the living person I've known the longest, my hiking partner, my sister and my friend.  She is an avid baker of cupcakes, a brilliant sewer of quilts,  the owner of giant cats and a master photographer.  I was delighted to share another photo safari with her.

Happy Birthday Jo!

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