Down and Back Again on the Mt. Berry Trail

I was off very late on my walk this morning: 8:35. I walked a leisurely two and a half hours and a little over five miles. The last hour of the walk was pretty hot and I was soaked when I got home. Over 16.000 steps for the day according to my Apple Watch at 10 p.m. With only two or three days excepted, I have had a substantial morning walk every day since we got back from California almost a month ago.

Other walkers generally had better sense than to start so late. In the distance is one walker coming with his dog Molly.

I like to do the down and back route on hot days -- there's more shade on the west side of the river and it's quieter.

A family including mom, dad, and twi daughters came along with a fur ball they call Sushi.

I called Sheila as I passed this bench in sight of the Armuchee Connector bridge. She had been sleeping when I left the house.

This is a very lovely part of the trail. I thoroughly enjoy these long morning walks. 

There are large cotton fields near the connector that ...  

...are beginning to burst into bolls now.

On the walk back I took my one millionth picture of this barn and silo. Okay, that might be an exaggeration.

A ragged butterfly.

Native wildflower: Conoclinium coelestium, Blue Mistflower.

Native wildflower: Euparorium secotinum, Late Boneset

Native wildflower: Vernonia gigantic, Giant Ironweed

Native wildflower: Bidens aristosa, Bearded Beggarticks

Other than my walk it was lazy Sunday, I am afraid. I watched part of the First UMC service on YouTube. I researched my nerve ailment (intense itching/pain in my middle back) with the help of Chatgpt. It has finally dissipated after three or four days of misery. Last night I slept through the night! Yay! I had slept VERY little for two nights. Sheila and I watched a couple of episodes of =a PBS murder mystery show -- Marlow Murders (or something like that.) AND Sheila got out a box of chocolate candies (a present from Mike Bock) that had been in the freezer for over a year. We ate several pieces.

I am still relishing my enjoyment of the ghost story program at Barnsley on Wednesday night. I was afraid that the nerve issue would screw it up but, although I had some pain/itch is was not disrupting.