I was walking the trail when I spotted what looked like a very odd looking small turtle crossing the concrete surface. As I came within a spitting distance, I realized that it was indeed a turtle. It had a leaf stuck on the outer side of the shell – which made it look odd. It had completely withdrawn itself inside the shell when it saw me approach.

I stood there, determined to win the game of patience and see what it would do once it realized that it was approaching a steep fall. You see the ground on the other side of the concrete trail had eroded thanks to the sharp flowing waters after the recent rains. The turtle’s only option would be to turn back or keep walking along the the edge till it could smoothly transition back into the ground.

Eventually, the turtle got out of its shell, under the mistaken notion that I was a permanent fixture. And kept plodding to the aforementioned edge of the concrete surface.

You have to watch the video to see what it did. Of course, it immediately stopped in its stride moment the left front foot found no ground under it. It took a second to think, stuck out the same foot again and tested out the air in the missing ground.

Convinced now that there is a big hole – it did a remarkable thing. No coming back. No walking along. It simply somersaulted and took a tumble. You will note how it safely landed on its hard shell at the end and then turned over and nonchalantly kept walking like nothing had happened.

I need a shell like that for my skateboarding!!!

This was outside Ocean and Acre in Halcyon this evening

I was playing with the iPhone

As I have said before, roses are notorious to capture in camera (the texture makes it very difficult – although not as difficult as thee moon). While walking away from Yonah Mountain Winery, this was caught my attention. It was barely two and a half centimeters in diameter. My dad used to grow these – I think he called them “button roses”. The structural strength of this rose (it is still blooming) was marvelous!

After clearing our private road off all fallen branches, debris etc, I went out of our property to check the damage. Immediately encountered this tree. If somebody tried to create a blockade, they could not have done a better job. Not sure you can see it but there is a second tree lying parallel to this one right behind (see behind the main portion of the trunk).

Slippery road filled with fallen leaves snaking thru the forest from our gate to the house…

At the Land of Thousand Hills Cafe in Halcyon.