Married in Veils of November Mist

 "Married in veils of November mist,

Fortune your wedding ring has kissed."

(A second of those New Zealand wedding superstitions.)

It is another beautiful Indian Summer day today just as it was eleven years ago when my younger brother Les and Susan were married.  

I remember my brother saying that being wed in November seemed to be working out for his siblings so he and Susan decided on a November wedding too. 

Their's was a small wedding with only a few friends and family, held at the home of the bride. 

I've shared most of the photos I took that day except this one of a guest adorned in vintage clothing and lucite heels. 

This was taken surreptiously with my old camera, so the picture isn't too clear, but I was so impressed with this woman.

Another photo showing her dress.

Continuing with the beautiful November weather theme:

I realized after finding delight in Thursday's Wildlife Management area that in addition to searching for nearby state and county parks, I should also look for look for wildlife areas and found 'Meadow Lake' north of Greenfield.

So yesterday morning I kiddingly (sort of) said to HD, "Where are we going today?" After I told him about the Wildlife Mgmt. area less than 30 miles away and agreed to go there, we both had the same idea - go see this year's Freedom Rock which was only a few miles further.

The first thing I noticed was how blue the front of the rock is this year.

It honors the 75th anniversary of the Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima.

Mr. Sorensen always does such a beautiful and meaningful job of repainting this rock each year in time for Memorial Day.

On the lightpole at the left are some of the many mementoes left by visitors.

This is the little square under the guard rail to the left of the light pole in the photo above.

"It's hard to forget someone who gave us so much to remember".

Other sides of the Freedom Rock.

From here we went to Meadow Lake.

The first thing Bud found when he got out to take photos was this bone.

I was kind of excited because I thought it had begun to petrify, i.e., it was old.

 

Then I found this:

and it became pretty obvious that a deer had perished here. 

The bone Bud found went back on the pile. 

The lake takes up about 1/4 of this Wildlife Management area.

The balance of the 317 acres is upland game hunting.

We saw no hunters around, only this one lone fisherman out in his boat.

A few muskrat lodges and this little island are toward the south end of Meadow Lake. I can imagine geese and small animals appreciating the safety of an island home.

At the end of a jetty, algae covered limestone.

And one large chunk of limestone with a sparkly dimple......

.......complimented by a dried plant arrangement.

As we were leaving Meadow Lake, Bud said, "We should try to find a dirt road and do a little rock hunting." I said, "Go down this road, I have a feeling we might find one." At the end of that mile of gravel, here it was: a mile of dirt road along the south border of the 317 acres. We hunted rocks, picked up a few and headed home. The perfect ending for another Indian Summer adventure. 

💛💚💙