Like every year, autumn seems to have passed in a flash! Warm, sunny days have turned to cold nights with temperatures dropping to almost 0 degrees, and days are something between 6-10°C.
We are at our lake cottage to spend autumn break, and I love being here. Even during the colder months, we enjoy spending time by the fireplace, staring out at the lake, and getting lost in a good book.
The children are really benefiting from the slower pace of life here: carrying firewood, playing in the forest, and diving into the big pile of books we brought from the library. The 8-year-old has just learned to light a fire all by himself and takes great pride in it.
Yesterday we went on a trip to a nature trail we had never visited before. Going to a completely new place is usually more rewarding than going to a familiar one. This time we struggled to find the right path. The 3-year-old was already whining and my stress level started to rise. But eventually we found the right track and our journey truly began!
The first section of the trail was a birch grove. The air carried the earthy scent of autumn leaves. We found mushrooms and polypores. The terrain was challenging for a 3-year-old to walk. She struggled with nettles growing up to her head height and hidden dips and treacherous hollows.
So, we took a snack break right at the beginning of the hike. While the children were eating, I went to photograph a few lively mushrooms on a stump. I really enjoy photographing nature, especially mushrooms.
I sent a photo of our picnic to my partner — he couldn’t come this time because he had to work. He replied with hearts and wrote that he missed us, which made me smile.
Our journey continued as we walked through a stand of spruce. The 5-year-old is a true child of nature. She never complains in the forest and can walk cheerfully through any kind of terrain. She stays curious about everything, but if we stop to look at every plant and mushroom, or climb every little hill, our hikes would take an incredibly long time.
We arrived at the edge of a pond, and it was so beautiful! The children rushed onto the small dock, while I nearly got my shoes wet standing on a wobbly clump of vegetation at the water’s edge.
The water surface reflected the soft blue autumn sky and clouds, which looked as if they were painted. We paused for a while, simply taking in the serene beauty. It was the moment when evening began to fall, and I realized it was time to continue our journey so that we would make it back to the cottage before dark.
The trail was supposed to form a loop and bring us back to our starting point, where we had left the car. We continued along the marked path, and the spruce forest became denser. It was already getting a bit dim, and the trail seemed to stretch on and on.
That was the first time in a long while that I looked at the map, and I realized that the path wasn’t leading back to the starting point. It approached the main road, but in a completely different spot than I had thought. So we walked the last 500 meters along the edge of the road — fortunately, we didn’t end up any farther away. We arrived at the cottage just as darkness was falling, and the 8-year-old immediately lit the fire in the fireplace. And in that quiet, I just felt glad to be here with them.
Thank you for beautiful writing and images, for permitting me to dwell once more with my children in bogs and spruce with cotton grass. Yes, they too would stop, hunker down to look closely at mushrooms. Sitting in the office, I feel like I've just come in from the great outdoors, a marvelous respite.
Another great adventure, and at a new place😍🍁🍄🟫💛 Your images are gorgeous as usual. I love the mushroom photos so so much Anna😍💚 And your little girl standing on the tree stump was adoreable🥰 The image of the day for me❣️