Edge of Appalachia Preserve

Tuesday
First of all, thanks so much for all the well-wishes for Roger’s retirement yesterday - we both appreciate it! After treating ourselves to pancakes with blueberries for breakfast, we celebrated the first day of Roger’s retirement and a gorgeous Spring day, by driving about 1 1/2 hours east to the Edge of Appalachia Preserve. We took a bit of a detour on the way to visit Miller’s Amish bakery and furniture store. We got some made to order sandwiches to take on our hike, and some very nice lemon, almond, blueberry bread. We browsed some of the beautifully made outdoor furniture, then continued on to the trailhead to Buzzardsroost Rock. We have done this trail a couple of times before, but not for several years. I checked when we got home, and the last time was actually 6 years ago, on our wedding anniversary. Looking back at the pictures from that occasion, it’s interesting to see that Spring was further advanced - the trees appeared to be virtually fully in leaf, and yet it was April 9 - demonstrating how late Spring is this year! However, it was still a beautiful walk, about 4 1/2 miles return, with a number of wildflowers as shown in my collage. The trail leads up to a beautiful viewpoint, where you will often see turkey or black vultures, sometimes referred to as buzzards, soaring overhead. We saw a couple while we were eating our lunch, but once I was free to take pictures, they seemed to have disappeared!
One year ago: Yellow-crowned night heron on nest