A WALK IN THE SWAMP

^^ like the autumn we never had ^^

over this past little break from school, mitch and I decided that we probably needed to take a break from all of the stuffing our faces and football and get a little quality time in the great outdoors. and the great outdoors in florida sort of equates to swamps. but swamps aren't always what you might think. I remember my brother-in-law once commenting that he thought we would see alligators on the way to our mailbox each evening and that isn't quite the case. you have got to go out of your way to find the real, live, honest-to-goodness kind of swamp that alligators would find worthy. all things considered, this swampwalk was a fairly tame one. more like walking through a beautiful park with the flora and fauna than it was getting stuck in quicksand and running from rabid animals.

we headed out to the nature reserve down by the university, the one I had walked many times before in high school. back then, I would walk and think and plan my future and worry about the things that teenage girls are prone to worry about. this time, as I walked the same paths with mitch, who actually is my future, we thought and planned things together and it made me feel like my life had come full circle (when in reality, it has only just begun). and the weather was so nice that we didn't get the least bit sweaty. more than anything, though, it was the perfect break from the sedentary identities that we sort of assumed for the couple days before. it was so nice getting to relax, finally, but there is a time when relaxing sort of turns to laziness and this pretty little walk sort of snapped us out of it. this realization spawned the 'let's do more outdoorsy stuff' conversation, which brought us back to thinking and planning. take note that we did go back to 'relaxing' when we were finished.

^^ he was more than a little bummed there were no gators to be found ^^ 

and did I forget to mention? happy monday! what did you do over the weekend? we did a lot of beach sitting (surprise, surprise) and sourdough loaf tending. I'm telling you, that little guy is so incredibly high maintenance. but even as you read this, he is in the oven, baking. let's all pray he turns out. he's 10 days in the making, and it'll probably be super depressing if he took that much time and I went through that much flour just to him turn out all flat and non-sour-tasting. have a great monday and if you care to share, let me know how your own weekend went in the comments!

love, arielle