GREAT OUTDOORS ~ COLOR

As we speak it is a blistery -5 in the out-of-doors. It IS one of my favorite times of year as i truly enjoy the snow and crunch of the ice and all the things that winter brings. Hot drinks. Snowshoeing. Fires. Juniper Ridge Sweetgrass Incense. Getting stuck in the driveway. Things like that.

I've been slightly overwhelmed by life as of late. I've been reliving life and some of the past trips scrolling through my library. I have the itch for another trip so while preparation for that is underway I like to dip in to the old albums and revisit some of the amazing places I've been fortunate enough to go. Every time I roll through the pictures from out Anniversary trip from two years ago there's one image that always seems to hit me.

Vermont is by far one of my favorite places. For years Marla & I would go play life there. Roll into these small quaint little towns and eat at no name places. Trying to frequent the places the locals call their favorites we always find ourselves in remote little corners of nowhere. Those are the places we love. Another one of our favorite Vermont past times is to ride. Enjoying the mountains, streams, amazing colors (in Fall), and in search of ye good ole moose. We have a slight obsession with them. But, prefer remote wilderness. Which again is right up our alley. On that trip we found ourselves in the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge which had to have been pretty close to Russia (my good buddy Palin). I love traveling these single lane dirt roads with brush scraping the sides of the car, knowing this is WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. On that remote road, in that remote area, with the wild things, I shot this image. I was standing on a bridge (looking for trout) and 5 steps to the right this is what I saw. Looking down onto a fir tree, some brush whose color that had hit its peak, and a strange shade of purple brought out by the river rocks. I really loved what I saw. I must've snapped 10 different variations of this same image. While it may not be the most striking, every time I pass it in my roll through my library I try to tag it. Only to realize it's already marked to be posted or in a place where I can see it more often. So today, on this super cold snowy day and a day where I needed a little color in my life, this scene did it's job and reminded me of God's goodness, creativity, and my love for the GREAT OUTDOORS.