A beautiful morning for an outing with the house dogs to enjoy the fall colors.

“…I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.” -Nathaniel Hawthorne

I can not even begin to tell you how much this quote resonates with me right now.  After one of the rainiest Augusts I can remember mucking my way through the sunshine was much needed. Not to mention that this past week I was working hard on adulting stuff, like making Dew Claw Kennel a LLC, updating our guides insurance, planning for winter dog sled rides & tours, working on the paperwork for the special use permit which allows us to guide tours in the BLM White Mountains Recreation area near our home, and setting up our new off grid cabin which is available be reservation for aurora viewing and rustic get-a-ways. So you can see I very much needed some glorious outside fun time!  And today I took it.

Now to be fair at Dew Claw we are outside rain or shine, there is always work to be done and dogs to be run.  Maybe it is that constant exposure to the outside world in all its many moods and season that gives one special appreciation of the changes they bring.  Today I took it all in, the richness of the colors, the way the light shines through golden birch leaves, which will all eventually fall turning the trail into a golden path, until the falling snow turns it into a white winter wonderland. I was thankful for the plentiful berry harvest this fall, which has filled an entire shelf of our freezer with rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries and low bush cranberries. I was grateful for the cooler temperatures which signal impending winter and allow us to take the dogs on longer training runs. I enjoyed the warm sun on my face, knowing that soon the sun will be a fleeting friend.