Surprise Sunny Morning at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Aah September! What a great time of the year with cool crisp air and long straited clouds! Sky becomes a canvas under a camera lens especially at dusk. Kids are back in school, us adults are in routine and after the usual running around on Saturdays, Sundays are spent preparing for the week ahead. Long lazy days of summers are a myth for me. Never having experienced one in summer, I look forward to lazy Sundays of fall instead. Today was supposed to be just one of those. The weathermen in NJ had sounded like a broken record for the past few days; temperature in the mid 70s, showers on and off all day so keep an umbrella handy, more of the same for the next five days.. blah..blah...blah.... 
Last evening just as the sun set over the horizon, the sky was a fiery red and I trespassed on to the local golf course to take this image. A large puddle of water morphed into a lake when viewed through the lens. What a perfect reflection!But I digress, let me get back to the lazy Sunday.Our dear friends had been asking us to join them on a hike at the Sourland Mountain Preserve to check out the prairie full of yellow flowers but since the weathermen and weathermom were in a joint cahoots to prevent us we didnt quite make it up there in the entire month. It would have been much the same today. However, to my surprise, I wake up to a hint of blue in the sky and quickly called our friends to join them at Sourland. Looking forward to a priarie full of yellow flowers, I carried my camera with me. On the way there I noticed the battery charge - 3% - "great" says J, "we can now have a real hike." (hmm what should i read into that?), and then at the site our friend said - "we are a couple weeks too late, the flowers are all gone". With or without the prairie full of flowers, Sourland preserve was a treat.As we started at the trail head, the trails were wet and muddy from all the recent rains and so we had company (I had trouble finding him - my generous friend chalked it to camouflage but I think my eyes need a good check up) . Small brooks had been born where there were supposed to be rocky trails.
Last evening just as the sun set over the horizon, the sky was a fiery red and I trespassed on to the local golf course to take this image. A large puddle of water morphed into a lake when viewed through the lens. What a perfect reflection!But I digress, let me get back to the lazy Sunday.Our dear friends had been asking us to join them on a hike at the Sourland Mountain Preserve to check out the prairie full of yellow flowers but since the weathermen and weathermom were in a joint cahoots to prevent us we didnt quite make it up there in the entire month. It would have been much the same today. However, to my surprise, I wake up to a hint of blue in the sky and quickly called our friends to join them at Sourland. Looking forward to a priarie full of yellow flowers, I carried my camera with me. On the way there I noticed the battery charge - 3% - "great" says J, "we can now have a real hike." (hmm what should i read into that?), and then at the site our friend said - "we are a couple weeks too late, the flowers are all gone". With or without the prairie full of flowers, Sourland preserve was a treat.As we started at the trail head, the trails were wet and muddy from all the recent rains and so we had company (I had trouble finding him - my generous friend chalked it to camouflage but I think my eyes need a good check up) . Small brooks had been born where there were supposed to be rocky trails.
Even though the weather was somewhat warm and muggy, there were signs of the coming cooler season all over. With every other step we saw a leaf with a different color and pattern.
We did not see the prairie filled with flowers but there was a prairie full of flowers to satisfy the eye.
Coming back to the trailhead we saw a group of geese contemplating whether to swim in the lake. I wondered if No Skating in English meant No swimming in Geeselish?
And the final treat was a group of moths just lingering on the ground.
All in all a fabulous Sunday morning!