October Catch up: 5 : Hat Day, Tea with Mandy Day.

I did manage to stay out of the trees and such last Friday, Oct 20th.

My friend Mandy had had a birthday at the end of September.

I invited her to tea at the Grand American Hotel when she had a break in her schedule.

We agreed...hats were required!

Her cute cloche was just perfect.

Tea was from 1-3:30.

Um...we finally stopped gabbing and cleared out about 5.

We might have still been talking away if the multiple consumed tea pots hadn't changed our priorities.

We don't see each other often.

We are nearly three decades apart in age.

We met each other during a Married couple's church barbecue up in Mill Creek Canyon about three years ago (where Bernie and I were the only couple over the age of 35 ahem...)

Over hot dogs and potato salad, we discovered we were kindred spirits.

Mandy and Jill time is never fluff time.

We talk deep and long for as long as we have together.

I wore my favorite New Orleans bonnet for tea.

It is a felt, and it felt so good to be into fall and winter hats again!

On Sunday I punted and went back to straw again.

This little number was acquired in Toronto Canada, at the Lilliput Millinery shop within the grounds of the University there.

I got to watch the milliners in action, taking hats from form to finished.

One of my favorite warm fall days hats.

Backing up a bit...

Aren't these flaming bushes amazing?

They are blazing away in many SLC gardens right now; this one was planted in the parking lot of our favorite Indian food restaurant where we took Mom to lunch on Sunday October 13, the day before she left to go home.

(Catching up, in a most shockingly random manner!)

After lunch we drove up Cottonwood Canyon to Guardsman's pass, where all the Aspens had already passed their color prime.

This year autumn actually went faster color wise than usual.

 

October Catch up: 4 : Wide Angle in Mill Creek.

October 5: Two weeks ago I was still experimenting with my rented wide angle lens.

Sunday I had gone to see what could be seen before returning the lens the next day.

Oh there were such wonderful things to see!

Leaves filling slow stretches of stream beds.

Fall colors framed every view; every view could be fully captured it the wide angle lens.

What a treat!

I was *shocked* to find that I had never, in five full years, followed the path past the colliding rivers at Porter Fork.

I was also shocked to find that even with a wide angle lens the colliding rivers couldn't be captured to my satisfaction.

(Consider visiting and seeing for yourself?)

The reds were particularly in glory that Sunday.

Snow still lingered on the wooden walkway.

The wide angle lens did it justice.

A photographer was at work just ahead.

She was Asian, and was photographing an Asian family in the fall colors.

I wondered if they were all just visiting or if they lived here.

The bushes with the white berries were splotching wildly into fall color.

Sometimes the sunlight was caught behind the leaves and mini stained glass windows were made.

God tries His hand at Modern Art?

How else could one explain the random colors on that leaf?

What moment inspired the crimson stems on white berries?

Or red speckles striped with purple shadows on a lime and yellow back ground?

Shadow play.

The coy berries are given away in silhouette.

Purple leaves shine red, dark veins turn white in the sunlight.

 

Oh I was reeling at the leaf by leaf creative colors here.

The bushes were filling the area next to a shaft toilet building.

 I decided to take a short potty break.

And was sucker punched to find this note attached to the door!

Hrumph.

A hiker passing by laughed.

"Do they think they can close the whole forest?  The forest is everyone's outhouse now."

Ewww.

Double insult:

The toilets are locked Nov. 1 for winter anyway.

The "forest" is part of a the Wasatch National Forest, but Mill Creek Canyon park is county owned.

We pay a county fee to enter it.

Hrumph.

Well, the toilets were opened to the humans again on Oct 18.

Whoopie.

Open for 13 more day!

 

Back to the fall color...

Crazy  how trees grow at an angle to grow on slopes.

I did note a bit of lens warp when I shot looking up.

Nice effect though.

The wide angle view did allow one to understand how big the trees are compared to the road.

See the road there at the bottom of the picture?

I had to laugh at how often a car with a sun roof would suddenly stop, and an upper body holding a camera would emerge, shoot a picture, then the car would drive on.

The bikers and the walkers really get the best views though.

The best smells and the best sounds of running Mill Creek and shuffling scuffling leaves.

I must be crazy...why do I ever leave this canyon in autumn?

Why do I do mundane things like laundry and grocery shopping and vacuuming inside?

Why do I not unfurl a blanket, place a pillow and lounge beneath trees like this all day?

Indeed...why is the forest not filled with people resting on their back instead of driving along missing the splendor over head?

If there was ever proof needed of foolishness, I think I may have found it!

(Final word on the wide angle lens buy vs rent question: It will be rented as needed. Unless of course the Fairy Lens Godmother leaves one under my pillow some night.

There IS a Fairy Lens Godmother for grown up photography addicts, right?)