The Vashonistas meet again

Sandi, Jann, Linda, Deb, me, Sally

Last year at the beginning of October, six blogging friends met for the first time at the Lavender Hill Farm on Vashon Island. I wrote about it here. The above picture shows the six of us this morning at the Hardware Store, the same restaurant where we ate breakfast last year. Our gathering was such a success, and we now love each other even more, so here we are one year later, with another three days together at the end of October instead of at the beginning. We even have a tradition to follow: breakfast at the Hardware Store, a visit to the Farmers' Market, and dinner together on Friday night, fixed by our very own Sandi, cook extraordinaire.

Sandi preparing last night's lasagne

Today we went on a couple of new hikes, discovered by Deb, sure to become another tradition: finding places on the island to explore together. The beautiful farm house where we are staying is a joy to come back to, after having been out and about, exploring. The gorgeous views we had of Mt. Rainier are missing this year, since we are experiencing the same low clouds that the rest of Washington state has had for the past two weeks. But it's still beautiful, and the colors!

The Shinglemill Creek trail

The first place we went is called the Shinglemill Creek trail, maintained by the Vashon Maury Island Land Trust, which is dedicated to preserving the land to protect natural habitats on the island. It's a beautiful trail, which descends into a ravine before starting up again. It's got some pretty steep parts, but it's just beautiful, if a bit on the slippery side with all the fallen leaves.

There are steps under all those leaves

After we explored the area, we headed down to a beach where we could look for shells and rocks. Although that was fun, the big excitement was watching an eagle steal a gull's lunch. The gull tried for awhile to get the treat back, but finally gave up.

It's hard to intimidate an eagle

Then we split up, three Vashonistas deciding to do some shopping in town, while three others, me being one, came back to our lovely farm house to enjoy some lunch and get some blogging done. I walked around the grounds, looking for some pictures, and could not resist this stunning display of fall colors taken from the back porch.

It really is that brilliant

When the sun is out, colors sometimes wash out a bit, but when it's overcast, I've gotten some of my most vivid pictures. Today was no exception. I plan to finish this post and head into the kitchen for some leftover lasagne. I'm enjoying myself immensely and will put a post up on my Eye on the Edge post tomorrow morning before we start to pack up and head back home. What a gift these blogging friends are!
:-)