End of October Faves

 

WOWZA it's been a crazy, busy week but it's been a great last week of October.  I know I have more than five blessings that God brought into my week but this space is for sharing our five faves.  

Head over to Susanne's blog to learn more about the FFF and join in! 

FIVE FAVES

Murphy Lake in the southern ADK
l-r: Patrick, Jill, Evelyn

• SATURDAY SOULSTEPS HIKE:  Last Saturday was a 7.2 miles hike  up in the southern region of the Adirondacks to 3 different lakes (Bennett, Middle, Murphy).  It was a cold start (34 F) but it warmed up to the low 60s by noon.  I'm thankful we had a great day of hiking and fellowship. 

from l-r: Evelyn, me, Jill H

Middle Lake in the southern ADK 

• POP IN VISIT:  Our youngest daughter popped in for a quick visit after having a "dad-daughter" date with Dave regarding her iphone plan. I didn't expect her to pop in for a chat afterwards so having her do that was a nice surprise.  She also popped in quick on Tuesday evening after work, to pick up  a package and she met the women in my book group.  I'm always thankful when one of my daughters pops in for a visit, even if for a short time. 

Coffee friends: me, Shawna, Maggie

• COFFEE n CONVERSATION:  Tuesday morning was another beautiful day and while I was driving to a fave coffee cafe in the town north of me, I was thanking God for the perfect Autumn weather we've had here in NYS and for my close friends and sisters in Christ. Two of those friends had been wanting to get together so we finally made it happen that morning.  Both of these ladies are in my hiking group and they've been part of my Tuesday evening book group for the last year and a half. We had great conversation getting caught up on our lives and what God is doing in our lives/families. I never want to take these moments for granted. 

• LIBRARY VISIT:  I had a few errands to run on Wednesday afternoon, and a book to return to the library, so instead of just dropping off the book in the outdoor slot, I went in to spend a few minutes browsing.  I found a book I had been wanting to read on the "new books" shelf so took that out. I'm thankful for a nice town library and the time to browse. 

Hurricane Mt firetower 
Hurricane Mt stands at 3694' elevation

• MOUNTAIN CLIMB!  Yesterday, I had scheduled our last big mountain  climb for my group SoulSteps. At the base of the mountain, when we started out, it was about 44 degrees F which is warm for this time of year. As we began to hike, the layers came off and the temps rose to the low 60s.  On the summit, which is almost a high peak (another 306 feet and it would be!), it was in the high 40s with very gusty wind. I didn't take a lot of photos during the climb, as it was my 4th time climbing this beauty of a mountain in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. No one else in the group, of the 8 who had signed up, had ever climbed it. They all loved it and we had a blast. I'm thankful I was able to do the last scramble without getting on my hands and knees, unlike the last time I tried to climb it in 2024.  I am so very thankful we had a great climb and fellowship and that every one stayed safe.  Here are a few of my fave pics I took:  

Hurricane Mt hikers/SoulSteps
l-r: Ping, Joan, Patrick and his wife Denise, Evelyn, me, Annette, Christianne

me leading the way up to the 2nd cairn
heading to the summit proper 
behind me: Evelyn and Denise 
Hurricane Mt
Photo by Joan 

Giant Mt, Hopkins Mt, and other high peaks
as seen from the summit of Hurricane.
I have hiked Giant (the high point in the middle)
to the left of Giant is Rocky Ridge and to the right is 
The Great Range (I've hiked 2 mountains in that  range) 

from the top of the firetower:  Denise (front)
Evelyn, me, Joan, Ping
Photo by Annette's son Michael 

On the way down the mountain, I wanted to hug
one of my fave trees and Annette snapped the pic
Touching/hugging a tree in the wilderness is very grounding
and centered on God our Creator. 
The Japanese call it Shinrin -Yoku aka Forest Bathing

That wraps up my week!

My husband I are hosting a get together tomorrow afternoon with a Chili and Wine party around our bonfire.  The weather promises to be perfect for this event and I have a lot of prep to do today so hopefully I'll get to comment on some of your own FFF posts.  

Whatever you have planned for this last weekend of October, I hope you find time to rest and re-charge and enjoy the perfect Autumn weather! 

Wednesday HodgePodge

It's been a hot minute since I had a chance to play along with the "hodgepodge" questionnaire from Joyce's site.  I really liked this week's questions so decided to put off the vacuuming to play along.  Head over to join in! 

on the summit of Rooster Comb Mt 
meditating and gazing at Giant Mt
the very first high peak I climbed in 1978

1. What most recently gave you goose bumps? The above pic. Every time.

If you're a mountain climber, you might know what I mean. Other things that give me "goose bumps":  someone's salvation story, especially if they came from a place of utter despair; watching our youngest daughter perform en pointe or in a lyrical ballet; shivering at the trailhead in the early Spring morning or late Autumn morning. 

2. What does Halloween look like in your home and/or neighborhood these days? Do you participate? 

In my home: I have no Halloween decor inside the house. I do have a lot of harvest themed pillows, decorative pumpkins (and on the deck, in the yard and on the porch), dried and silk autumnal flowers.  The only "Halloween" thing I have is a smiling plastic jack o'lantern on a small bench in the front garden that turns on in the dark.  I like to say we are shining the light of Jesus on a spiritually dark "holiday". 

3. Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, chia...your favorite seed on the list? What's something you like to make/eat that calls for one of these seeds in the recipe? 

I use pumpkin and sunflower seeds often for trailmix for my hiking snacks.  I use sesame on certain Asian dishes I cook and on my apple spice cookies.  I use poppy seeds in certain dinner dishes (I make a good poppyseed noodle dish with carrots and scallions).  As for Chia:  I use them in my fruit bowl smoothies or in chia pudding. (rare).  I also sprinkle them on my steel cut oats sometimes. 

4. What's the most (or one of the most) 'fall photos' you've ever taken? Share it here. Just one. 

 One of the most fall photos? Not sure what this means. Maybe she means a pic that depicts Autumn the best? I have a TON.  But if I have to  choose just one it would be this: 

this is at Elizabeth Point (a mile hike) on 13th Lake
after climbing Balm of Gilead Mt.  
this is located in the central Adirondacks 
 it just screams "AUTUMN" to me. 

5. Somehow we're rolling in to November next week. If your October were a chapter in a book, what would the title of this chapter be? 

"Grit and Grace" (and no, I'm not taking time to explain it but if you click on "home" for this blog and scroll down to see 2 devotional posts I wrote last week, you will understand. One is called Pursued. The first one is called His Face. )

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

2026 Book Review #31:The Lost Boy

 

This is the 7th book in the Patrik Hedstrom detective series set in Sweden that I enjoy and discovered a few years ago, thanks to my oldest daughter. However, this 7th book is definitely not one of her better ones, in my opinion. 

STORY SUMMARY

Patrik and Erica Hedstrom are married and live in Fjallbacka Sweden.  Patrik is a detective on the local police force and Erica is a true crime author who has just given birth to twin boys, Noel and Anton. They join big sister Maja, age 2.  

Patrik gets a new case when the twins are just 4 months old and it involves the murder of a local financial director named Mats (Matte) Sverin. Mats is a man that everyone seemed to like. Yet nobody really knew much about him or his personal life. He worked for a multi-million, high-profile health club/resort taking over an old abandoned building known as Badis. 

It seems as though he had something to hide. 

Who murdered Mats? How does Mats relate to the young mom named Nathalie who is living on Ghost Island with her 5 yr old son Sam? 

Meanwhile, there is another plot going on in the book.  It takes place in 1871-1875 and involves a young married woman named Emelie who is pregnant by her husband Karl.  It was actually a gang rape that got her pregnant (Karl and his friend Julian).  The men are lighthoue keepers and Julian lives with Karl and Emelie. This part of the story involves ghosts who "live" on the island. 

Does this relate at all to the present day? And if so, how? 

MY THOUGHTS

This book was way too long and could have been shortened to get to the wrap up. I found it got very bogged down with the whole "ghost story" premise and just didn't capture my interest, yet I wanted to see what would happen. 

I haven't done as much daily reading the last month as I normally do as I've been very active physically with workouts and hiking trips. That might have had something to do with it. But I finally decided to just skim through the ending and I'm glad I did. It's not  a spectacular plot.  I did love that the main characters who appear in all of the Hedstrom novels were further developed and we find out what happens to Anna who is recovering from an emergency C section and the death of her one week old baby boy,  and is Erica's younger sister. 

I only found a couple of editing errors and the use of the F word was minimal. 

I'm hoping the 8th book in the series is better.   It will be awhile before I choose that one as I need a break from this type of novel. The main themes were quite dark: murder, gang rape, suicide in both stories, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction, newborn death. At almost 500 pages, I expected something better. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 7. 

Pursued

 

Lisha Kill Nature Preserve 

While I was seeking Sabbath space, I ran a trail for about a half mile.  I loved it,  although as I mentioned in this first post about my time in the woods on Thursday morning, I regretted doing so as it left me with upper back pain. But I did love running along this new bridge and up those new steps where in previous years, this trail had a steep, muddy slope here.  The stairs make it easier to get to the ridge top of the nature preserve. 

After the sun and deer incident mentioned in the first post,   I walked more slowly, savoring the white pine scent and occasionally picking up the balsam scent (my fave). The crunch of the freshly fallen leaves seemed so loud in the quiet of the sun-dappled woods.  I was the only human there at  9:45 AM. 

 I came down to the creek and walked along it for a bit, praying for my friends and their requests. But  after turning back from the creek, towards what I thought was the trail, I discovered I was a bit lost. The trail had disappeared!

 I was alone. But I wasn't super fearful because I knew if I retraced my steps back to the creek, I could look for a red blaze and hopefully it would be there to lead me back to the main trail. 

where's the trail? 

There were no red blazes! There were a lot of downed trees.  This is called blowdown if you're a hiker. I was annoyed and felt like I was wasting my time. But that's when I looked up and saw this scene: 

There were no red blazes but the trail was more obvious...at least I hoped it was the right trail...and God said to my heart "Follow My Light".  Seriously, God, You're going to turn this into a spiritual lesson...another one? Isn't one enough for this morning? 

Apparently not, because there was another whole lesson coming, although I didn't know it at the time. 

So...I followed the sunlight which was uncannily ahead of me on the path (there are no coincidences, my friends!) 

Soon, I came to what my friends and I who have come here together, call "the valley".  It's this depression in the ground and yes, there was a red blaze on the tree at the start of it, after I turned away from the creek. This picture shows me looking back down the trail towards "the valley". 

And this is where I heard God speak again! I guess I really was having Sabbath time with Him. He said:  "These last 4 months have seemed to you like you've been in a pit.....you've struggled to come to the mountain top...you've had  so many good hikes to the tops of mountains these past months, but I've had you in a valley because I needed you to see that I'm walking with you through it. You've had trouble seeing that. I'm talking about a spiritual valley and a spiritual mountain top experience. I didn't do things in the order you  wanted me to.  It's because your heart and mind weren't ready for the last hard piece.  I've been telling you this so you can see why I did things this way. Trust me, daughter. I know the plans I have for you. This was my plan all along. Your openness with your friend brought you relief. You shared hard things that had never been shared. That was Me guiding you, just like I guided you today. Lean into Me because I have so much more."

walking up from the "valley" 

And then all I heard was silence. The silence seemed so loud. 

Until it wasn't. 

trail heading back down the ridge
and back towards the main trail to parking area

I heard a loud knocking.  And immediately I knew what it was: a pileated woodpecker!  And wow did I hear from God again but at first it was hard to hear His Voice over that bird!  In fact, I was kind of ignoring God's Voice because I was in pursuit of that woodpecker. I was determined to see him.  I have hiked with my husband for years...with our daughters...with my friends...and in my hiking group...and have heard them numerous times.  But they are good at hiding. They do not want to be found!  They will literally go all the way around the tree so humans cannot find them. But then I came upon this tree and I stopped up short because God's Voice rose above that bird's

"you've been stripped bare like this tree. I have stripped away those memories/"friends"  of your former church, I have stripped away some of those triggers that have tripped you up regarding your  childhood and I am stripping away your self-reliance." 

Ouch. I'm actually kind of proud of being independent. Thanks anyway, God. 

 So I stood there and said God, You're the One who gave me an independent spirit, aren't you? And then I heard something along the lines of how not only it's a strength but it's also a weakness. And He uses our weaknesses to get us to focus on His Strength.  I didn't fully understand what I was hearing so I began to pursue the woodpecker again who was just madly knocking away at some tree ahead of me. 

I began to walk faster because I really wanted to see this pileated creature. I can be quite stubborn and I wasn't going to leave until I could at least get a glimpse of him. I've seen one at our suet  feeder the last 2 winters... but never in the woods. I was one determined person. 

And as I pursued the sound (he always seemed to be 2 steps ahead of me) guess what God spoke about? It was so powerful I pulled out my notes app and wrote the words down (you do know, I hope, that I haven't been hearing an audible Voice.  It's more like a whisper to my soul...it's through the Holy Spirit that God speaks to us...it's called the manifest presence of God and it's humbling): 

"the woodpecker is hiding from you like you tried to hide from Me so many times in your past. But you cannot hide from Me and you know that, so you faced  those last pieces of abuse because My Spirit was drawing you to peace and joy again. I always see you, I always hear you, I am always present for you.  You feel closest to Me in My created world and that's Ok. That's how I created you! But now you know I Am with you everywhere....this is in your heart now, not just your head knowledge."

 As He was talking, I was still pursuing the woodpecker and typing the words on my phone. At one point I saw the bird swoop down and then up onto the upper part of the trail where I had to go to get back to my car. The pursuit was on! I was so determined to see this woodpecker that I almost missed the next words from God but I paused to catch my breath and there was His Voice again speaking over the knocking of that dang bird. 

"I have a purpose for you other than all the purposes you have walked in since knowing Me. Although you think your teaching days are over, they are not. Your purpose is to teach women...and to come alongside them and learn with them, doing life with them, learning about My purposes for your lives. Do this. You know the book. You know My Word. A Life of Purpose. Do that. " 

I was kind of confused. What in the world was He talking about? I already do lead 2 women's groups: a Monday morning one that will end in  mid- Dec and a Tues evening one that will end in about 6 weeks. Life of Purpose? Yes, of course, we all have lives with purpose. I kind of just shrugged off these words and rounded the last corner of the trail (It becomes a switchback trail to get to the upper part). 

and there he was. The Woodpecker. I could NOT believe it. I very slowly opened up the camera app and snapped a pic. And then I took a video. I was silently praising God for allowing me to see this creature that has proved so elusive. 

zoom in and you can see him in the middle of the tree on the right side. 
He didn't hide! 

And God whispered "You are not elusive. I pursue you. A life of purpose.  Remember that." 

 

And friends, when I got home, and  was doing chores around the house, I went into the living room to straighten up my little coffee table where I typically do my Bible study homework or work on my blog. I noticed the books and hiking guides on the bottom shelf needed cleaning up.....And guess what I found on the very bottom of a stack of hiking things? Something I had completely forgot I bought last autumn....I had ordered it and never even really looked at it. guess I know what my next  Monday group study will be.....

God pursues us, my friends.....for His Kingdom purposes.