hiking with friends

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom"
Marcel Proust.

justin and i had finally freed up sometime last weekend for hiking with our friends jaime and mel. jaime & mel had the day planned for us, all we had to do was show up. it was great spending time with them- it is easy for me to get into a routine and stick with that routine for months at a time, easy for me to forget how important it is to spend time with friends. this weekend reminded me how good it feels not be always be so structured and take a day or two not planning out my entire day and having the need to always cross that last thing off my list before i can relax. the reality is there will always be a list, there will always be one more thing to do. i have come to realize it doesn't need to get done right that very minute, the world is not going to end if i didn't vacuum the floor or put away the clean dishes. i am becoming more aware that those little moments of doing nothing are just as important if not more important than those moments of doing something.

jaime and mel were so excited to bring us up to the apple orchard on cardigan mountain in Alexandria- they explained that if it wasn't too late the blossoms would be in full bloom and sooooo romantic. justin totally chuckled- so romantic, right up his alley. justin and i thought we were hiking up cardigan mountain, so naturally we brought our hiking gear. funny story, because we had thought we were taking a big hike i had come out of the bedroom dressed in my workout gear- it was HOT and i like to be comfortable while hiking, justin asked me was i going hiking in that?!?! he seemed not to think it was an appropriate hiking with friends outfit but more of going to the gym to work up a sweat ensemble- well thank god i changed because i would totally have felt like a tool prancing around town in my workout clothes.

when we arrived at the orchard we were met with a few blossoms and not the dazzling array we had hoped for- learning from the owner we were just a few days late. we decided to check out the orchard anyways and jaime led us through the fields to a beautiful view- so we jumped through the tall grass keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn't have any close encounters with a tick- once we got to the view we did a tick check and came out clean.

coming back down we opted to walk the nice mowed path that we all apparently missed going up.

jaime was indefinitely fired from apple orchard leader.

back to jaime and mels we went after the orchard- jaime has been exploring the trails that surround his property and wanted to show us what he has been up too- justin was equally excited to show me the trails as they are part of the snowmobile system he rode this past winter. armed and sprayed down with bug dope we were on our way. the trail was muddy at times but a nice easy hike.

have you ever seen a dog with a bigger tongue! this is anna's classic hiking pose

along the trail boasted more lady slippers than you could count

along the way jaime entertained us with his hiking adventure stories and told us about the map system he was developing based on the series of trails he has explored and about the friendly neighbor that came out with a shot gun greeting on one of his daily hikes.

the view was beautiful from the top. all along the trail were the old stone walls built by the farmers back in the day, dividing one property from another.

the day was beautiful - one i hope we get to repeat agian soon.

i wanted to include the below picture of mel's pup titan- he is a funny little dog, everytime i see this picture it reminds me of something you would see in anthropologie!