In the glory

As I rode north, the low sun made even weeds sparkle

went by lots of horse farms

coming home, turned on to dirt roads. Speckled light made it hard to see

the grandkids had face painting at a local pumpkin patch

purple is her favorite

Allie singing itsy bitsy spider. Here the sun comes out

Ah Fall! Although a harbinger of the bleakness to come, it can be glorious. Sunday mornings are my prime bicycling times as the traffic is at its lowest but with the sun coming up later and later and it being so low that heading east must be planned carefully as drivers would be blinded to my presence. Next Sunday is Day Light Savings time so the sun will come out a little earlier. But yesterday it was windless and sunny though a bit nippy. I headed north and then west on paved roads before too many drivers hit the streets during the golden hour when the low sun makes everything sparkle. I planned for the eastern portion of my ride to be as late as possible for the sun to be higher and thus not in my eyes and that of the drivers behind me. Also I wanted to try roads that I have not been on. So I turned south onto a  narrow dirt  road through a dense forest. Beautiful but tough sledding due to a heavy rain the night before. I became mired in wet sand. Even the sections that I could pick up speed, light dark light dark...the flashing lights probably could set off a seizure in susceptible people. The sun had dried the rain off the middle of the east west roads so I had a better path though the sun hurt my eyes. 26 miles later, I was home.

 

The day before, I reserved for my longest run of the season unfortunately after a rain that made the hills slippery but still all was pretty. Steve and I have not done much together due to the pressure of the albatross (still will have it to deal with at a lesser extent for the next few weeks...those maple leaves have to be dealt with). We went for a drive in the country stopping at the orchard I had biked to the week before for more honey crisps and some of their fruit butters. Plum butter any one? We stopped at Josh's to see Allie as UM had a BYE and Josh would not be glued to the set. He and Allie came over yesterday for Allie to ride our selection of 'cars'.

 

And then a friend stopped by to watch Black Mirror, a British version of The Twilight Zone only much more weird. Example: a beloved princess in England is kidnapped and will be killed if the kidnapper's one request is not made: for the Prime Minister to be televised having sex with a pig.