Easter Sunday 2000, which was when I took this photo of Falling Water Creek just downhill from the upper Richland Creek campground, was a special day for several reasons, one of which was that it was the first time I ever took Frankie on a hike. It was also the first time I got to use (abuse?) a new wide-angle lens I had just bought.

And it was the day before an appointment to take Manda in to have her leg x-rayed to see if the limp she had developed was bone cancer, as it had been for Brandy and Connor before her. It turned out that it was. We were able to keep the old girl going for a couple of months after that, long enough for her to see her 15th birthday, which you can be sure was as special as I could make it, with a feast for her and all the dogs, the idea being that if we couldn't make her life longer, at least we would do our best to make it wider.

No hikes in the woods for this little boy this past weekend. I jammed my big toe on Friday, and the longest hike I've taken in the last few days has been from the bedroom to the refrigerator. The toe is still big and purple, but I'm determined that it's going to be healed enough for me to get out this coming weekend. It's just about time to haul out the camera gear for the annual sprint for the colors. The woods are about to turn, and if our luck holds, it should be a very fine autumn this year.