Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
The leaves are mostly off the trees, the light’s at a certain angle, and there’s even haze in the air–it’s starting to feel more like winter than fall, even if the sun is warm.
The winter angle of the light means it’s coming in on the couch all afternoon, and the new houseguests have discovered it’s a great spot for some brother baths:
Doc had an extra day off for an appointment this week so we went up Big Cottonwood to see how low the snow had gotten and to check out a waterfall.
Hidden Falls is literally 500 feet off the road, so not really a hike, but neither of us had any idea it was there! Just lovely!
Because we’d already paid our recreation area fee for the waterfall parking lot like good citizens, we decided to just walk around Silver Lake (another fee area). A couple thousand feet higher, it was getting frosty up there in the late afternoon and that snow on the north slopes is probably there to stay. 
Being under-employed means we can go to places we’d never attempt on a weekend. Like yesterday’s trip to Mill B in Big Cottonwood, which I don’t think I’ve ever hiked from? We didn’t do the longer trails but the north overlook was just right.
The light was doing its best “German Romantic landscape painting” impression–just a gorgeous day.
See what I mean?
I’m getting used to underemployment, filling the days with hikes when Doc is around…
Kitty boys when he’s not…
And looking out for surprises along the way:
We got one more leaf hike in Friday, before wind and rain rolled in and blew everything off the trees. This time we went up Little Cottonwood–we were just going to hike some of the way to Red Pine Lake, but we saw a marker for Gloria Falls and detoured there. Neither of us had heard of it, but it was lovely.
There are Bob Rosses everywhere for those with eyes to see.
Going on a hike three times a week is the type of unemployed thing you can do when you’re waiting on some freelance stuff and your partner has a random day off. Monday we went up to Willow Heights for the aspens and they were putting everything into it. (So was that blue sky.)
Doc took a new favorite picture of me and I took…a picture of his back! This might be our relationship in a nutshell. 😂
Being unemployed means I can drag Doc into the mountains with me whenever he has a day off, which was both Thursday and Sunday this past week. We went up around Lake Solitude/Silver Lake on Thursday to beat the crowds and the aspens were near their peak–just a gorgeous day:
Sunday was 15 degrees above normal so we decided to hang by the stream in Millcreek, but things are starting to turn there too:
Doc has Tuesdays off and I don’t have anything to do (yet–I do have some freelance starting next week, hooray!) so we went up to the Uintas yesterday. Nothing like some vast distances and being surprised by four deer bounding across the trail (not pictured) for some perspective.
I made a lot of progress on the garage over the long weekend! I finished mudding and then sanded and even started with primer in one corner. My dad told me about “dust control” drywall compound and it was definitely worth the extra money: It’s still dusty but the particulates want to fall to the ground faster, so at least it’s not floating in the air.
My walls aren’t the smoothest in the world but they’re also not the most textured either. I can tell I got better!
I took a little break from everything to go on a hike Friday afternoon up Big Cottonwood. The clouds were doing the most and it was just lovely.
We had a really hot day with wind over the weekend so the valley is starting to get a little crispy, but the mountains are still green and still doing their “enchanted forest in bloom” thing.
