These simple, non-specific stones are always my favourite when exploring graveyards. The words were nearly worn off but I could just make out "At Rest" underneath the Father side.
-------------------------------
Many of the best views I saw on this trip were from the window of a fast-moving train. The landscapes are incredible at this time of year. I am still in awe of the rich colours; the fields of swaying, yellowed corn stalks and grasses; the swamps dotted with the thin sticks of the remains of dead trees; the glistening lake water on the ride back. You get the best views from the train with the negative being that there is no stopping to take it in or make a picture.
We did not make it to the countryside. My disappointment was heightened by all those great train views and a strong desire to capture some of those mature, late-season grasses. I got plenty of the cultivated variety a few days later at the Botanical Gardens.
We did get a good day walk up the mountain through the cemetery and over to the viewing platform on the other side where I stupidly purchased a very distasteful coffee that made me queasy almost instantly. We were both very impressed and proud by our ability to navigate the mountain on intuition alone.
Surprisingly, I didn't even make it through one book and the book I did read was not the book I expected to be drawn into. There was too much distraction in the form of 1000 channels of pure crap, of which I watched about four. I am too easily suckered in by the lowest of the low in reality television programming, which is why we do not have cable television at home! A few episodes of The Real Housewives of the O.C and that show with the dude from KISS and a very grim view of the world starts to take shape in my mind. Yeah, I gotta dole that crap out in finite quantities.
Music: Nick Drake did prove to be a good soundtrack to the moving landscape. I don't seem to care for it as much while sitting at my desk working. For that I am stuck on David Bowie "The Jean Genie."