Searching for life in October

At times, October is like the death to me. The temperature is about 35 degrees below what I need to function (that is, current temp = 50; Ideal temp = 85), it is not cold enough for it to be socially acceptable to be wearing mittens but I have to because I have Raynauds, and my office ("woman cave") is a drafty, unheated room in the house so I have to set up shop in the dining room until about April.

At other times, October is like birth to me. One, my birthday is October fifth. Two, Halloween. My two favorite holidays. Both include a little creativity, receiving attention, and eating junk food. Without fail, each year my husband comes up  with multi-part birthday gifts which usually entail an experiential outing as well as a real gift. For the record, he bought me shoes this year because he somehow has an eye for fashion.

On a freezing (I'm lying, it was 50 degrees, as stated) Sunday morning before my birthday, we went to The Garden in the Woods, a garden, in um, the woods, that is maintained by the New England Wild Flower Society. There is a main trail that takes about 45 minutes, along with smaller trails that break off that will loop you back to the main trail, for an additional 10 minutes each. Each trail has something going for it--a sculpture, a pond, special types of flowers, etc.

Now, it being October, I knew we could expect maybe some nice leaves and some fun walking times in nature but I was pleasantly  surprised by the extent of the pretty flowers, plants and hilarity that we encountered.

 

 

 

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My three favorites

Pitcher Plant

 

Yogurt covered raisins

 

A horrifying alien

 

Throughout the trails there were informational signs that sometimes had little lift-up plaques that had you guess the answer to a question.

WHAT IS THIS? Hmmm. Let me try to come up with something innappropriate and raunchy.

Oh wow, I was right. It IS an egg sac of the spotted salamander. How inappropriate and raunchy. And FURTHERMORE,

 

 

There was a particular trail that the lady at the front desk had told us wouldn't be worth going down because it was all composting? Or something. We went down it because the map indicated that there was a STEGOSAURUS  on the trail. 

 

Wait a sec, that's a picture of TWO Steg-o-saurauses

According to the sign, the Stegosaurus was created by the sculptor David Philips in 2006 when the Garden held an exhibit called Rock On. The boulder itself had been there for the last 12,000 years, since the last glaciers retreated. It had sat there .... looking like a boulder ... until it was turned into a Stegosaurus. 

Sing it, sistah!