October was a BIG month for getting outdoors for our family. My husband and I flew across the country to not only see the fall colors of the East Coast but to spend quality family time with three of our children. I realized that all five of us needed to do some exploring out in the fresh air and sunshine. We couldn’t have timed our trip better and this entry will share a few of the highlights as I compose this Outdoor Mom’s Journal for this month.
Above is the first of our autumn strolls. This one at Ramapo Valley County Reservation in Mahwah, New Jersey. Yes, New Jersey. I have one son living not far from this gem of a park and one evening we took a walk around the shore of the small lake there right at the golden time of the day. This is a photo I snapped as we rounded a corner…it was like a tunnel of light. Amazing.
Kent Falls, CT
You have no idea how happy this image makes me. To have five of us together, on the trail, almost perfect (just missing one child).
We hiked along the Appalachian Trail near the Housatonic River and the town of Kent, CT one afternoon. It was like a dream. W
The trail was flat and covered in fallen leaves which were so crunchy under our feet. The trail meanders alongside the river for miles and miles but we didn’t go but maybe a couple miles before we turned around and headed back.
The leaves were so interesting and my husband and daughter wanted a photo with some of the rather large leaves that we found along one portion of the trail.
We were staying at gorgeous Candlewood Lake near Danbury, CT. This was the perfect launching spot for our trip and it was central to everything we wanted to do.
Candlewood Lake in Connecticut created a memory for our family and this little cabin we rented through AirBNB could not have been any better.
Here is a photo I would like to share: Lake Waramaug State Park in Connecticut
Outdoor Mom’s Journal
Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world. I hope you have enjoyed your October nature adventures.
How Do You Join?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
- During our outdoor time this week we went….
- The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
- Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
- In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting….
- I added nature journal pages about….
- I am reading…
- I am dreaming about…
- A photo I would like to share…
I will be posting my Outdoor Mom’s Journal entry once a month. Look for it during the first week of the month each month.
Yay for New Jersey!!! I’m a life-long resident, born and raised. We do have beautiful places! I live in Ocean County, part of the Pine Barrens, and we are 30 minutes from the most beautiful shores on the east coast, aka Seaside. We also have our wooded areas, living on 11 acres of land, myself, surrounded by Pinelands protected woods and horse farms. I’ve been out of state many times, and tell people where I live and that it’s located in NJ and they don’t believe it. I’m chuckling to myself reading your post because the end of September, being an outdoor family ourselves, we made a road trip all the way to your “neck of the woods” to visit Yosemite NP and Sequoia NP…WOW!!! It’s like visiting NYC for the first time. You just look around and your jaw drops from how BIG and BEAUTIFUL things are out west…the mountains (El Capitan, Half Dome) and the Sequoia’s and Redwoods! Everything is big out west. I would spend everyday there if I could. You guys are blessed to be close to those places. So many more places we wanted to see, but had little time for. I guess we will be headed back someday. Thank you for sharing your experiences and the work that you do on this site. My family enjoys it!!
My son is enjoying his days in New Jersey. He just found out that his work assignment has been extended until March 1st so he will be there for his first NJ winter. We were awed and surprised at the beauty of the area we were in and would not hesitate to go again anytime! So glad to hear you were able to come and visit my world…hoping you got to see some water in the falls but just the sheer joy of being at Yosemite for the first time is amazing enough. So glad you are enjoying my things here on the Handbook of Nature Study!
Winter days in NJ are so unpredictable sometimes, but I hear this winter is quite a bit of snow again. That past few years have been predicted that way, and we did get hit! But I’ve been through winters here where they found a tree in one of the parks blooming in January because it was so mild, I kid you not! That was 2007. My firstborn’s bday is January 5, 2007, and I brought him home from the hospital Jan 7. It was 70 degrees that day! Weird. I’m glad your son is enjoying the east coast! It can get gloomy here in winter, but even then, there’s always something to find in nature. 🙂 be sure to let him know, that even in winter, he needs to visit the Jersey Shore and check out Spring Lake, Seaside Heights and Pt Pleasant. Beautiful beach places. It’s chilly at the ocean, but all the tourists aren’t around and you can still enjoy a little east coast boardwalk experience and see the beaches here (minus the swimming, of course!), which IMO are the best on the east coast …Yosemite Falls was not flowing…BIG SIGH…since I was in high school, I wanted to see Yosemite, so I was bummed, but I knew going in the fall season it wouldn’t be flowing. I guess I’ll just have to go back! 😉 But the day I woke up knowing I was going to the park, I was like a little kids on Christmas morning, hahaha! The views were literally breathtaking! We watched some mountain climbers on El Capitan. WOW! Those guys are brave. We also had the privilege of seeing the sun set on half dome. That was really cool!
Winter days in NJ are so unpredictable sometimes, but I hear this winter is quite a bit of snow again. That past few years have been predicted that way, and we did get hit! But I’ve been through winters here where they found a tree in one of the parks blooming in January because it was so mild, I kid you not! That was 2007. My firstborn’s bday is January 5, 2007, and I brought him home from the hospital Jan 7. It was 70 degrees that day! Weird. I’m glad your son is enjoying the east coast! It can get gloomy here in winter, but even then, there’s always something to find in nature. 🙂 be sure to let him know, that even in winter, he needs to visit the Jersey Shore and check out Spring Lake, Seaside Heights and Pt Pleasant, and even take a trip to Smithville (not a beach place, but a cool place to hang with shops and villages) and Cape May. Beautiful beach places. It’s chilly at the ocean, but all the tourists aren’t around and you can still enjoy a little east coast boardwalk experience and see the beaches here (minus the swimming, of course!), which IMO are the best on the east coast …Yosemite Falls was not flowing…BIG SIGH…since I was in high school, I wanted to see Yosemite, so I was bummed, but I knew going in the fall season it wouldn’t be flowing. I guess I’ll just have to go back! 😉 But the day I woke up knowing I was going to the park, I was like a little kids on Christmas morning, hahaha! The views were literally breathtaking! We watched some mountain climbers on El Capitan. WOW! Those guys are brave. We also had the privilege of seeing the sun set on half dome. That was really cool!
He is not looking forward to winter but I will mention the places to him and maybe it will help to have some things to look forward to….appreciate the suggestions. Yes, autumn in Yosemite is still gorgeous even with no water in the falls. Come again in April or May!
Such lovely, lovely nature photos. Thank you so much for sharing them. Our explorations this week were wet. You can see them here http://ablessedhomeschoollife.blogspot.com/2015/11/urban-nature-study-week-2.html
Blessings, Dawn
Glad you enjoyed the entry today….it was fun to pop over and see your tree nature study and the sketches were awesome!
Wow, those photos are beautiful. I miss those fall colours. I grew up with fall colours like that, but now I live in the boreal forest so I don’t get the same colours (mainly we just get yellow and its short-lived). This week for our nature study we learned about chickadees. We have some coming to our feeder that we just put up. We used your pages about chickadees for our study.
Here in California we have not had colors like this either because of the drought. It was so beautiful in Connecticut…hated to come home to the brown of the California autumn.
Great pictures! I am glad you had such beautiful weather.
Have you already identified the leaves your daughter and husband are holding? I would guess your daughter has a Sycamore leaf and your husband a Tulip poplar. Both really interesting trees. The mottled bark and fruit of the sycamore are unusual. The tulip poplar leaf is just such an interesting shape, but the flowers are amazing! Yellow and orange and really pretty. The fruit is sort of like a cone with thin winged seeds. Another tree I am wondering if you saw is Sassafras. It has three different shaped leaves on the same tree – one with 3 lobes, one that looks like a mitten with 2 lobes, and one that is “simple”. Can you tell that if someone asked me I would have a hard time picking my favorite tree?
Glad you had such a great time with your family.
Sarah
Thanks for all your help Sarah! We had a fabulous time!
Hi there! I stumbled upon your blog recently, and I LOVE the idea of your Outdoor Mom’s Journal! I took your suggestion and wrote a post of my own, I’m hoping to be able to participate monthly from now on. Looking forward to your next post, what a wealth of information this site is!
http://thelittlegreyhouse.com/2015/11/11/outdoor-moms-journal-november-edition/
Thanks for sharing your link! I enjoyed your entry and left you a comment over on your blog. Hope to see your entry next month too!