It's about time I join @lyndsaybowes and co. and contribute something to the #walkwithme tag.

I try to go running three days out of four. (My legs need that fourth day to rest and avoid injury.) But when my sister comes to visit we tend to go hiking and kayaking instead. It gives me a chance to slow down and really appreciate some of the scenery I'm fortunate enough to live around.

She didn't really pick the best weekend for her visit, weather-wise. We had pretty steady rain all day Saturday - so I ended up running after all (because it actually feels pretty good to run in the rain, if it's not too cold). I logged five miles and came back looking like a drowned rat while she watched some old movies.

But things cleared up enough in the evening that we were able to get out on the water and enjoy an evening kayak for a couple of hours. There were some pretty dramatic skies as a front moved in and drier air pushed out the moist.

My cheap cell-phone camera can't do justice to the rainbow we saw, so I have boosted the saturation on this photo a bit.

More rain came this morning, but it died off around 9 AM. Sister, wife, and I were able to get out for our planned hike.

There's so much lovely terrain around here that I really take it for granted. These are the sorts of roads that I get to run on, every day.

Notice that someone left a conch shell on the old stone pillar there. We'll see more, shortly.

There's an old iron gate here because this whole point used to be part of one estate in the 1800s. It's been broken up and parceled out since, but the majority is still, thankfully, conservation land.

We leave the roads and keep to the woodland paths whenever we can. They are well maintained and wind through all kinds of environments.

Eventually we made it out onto this stretch of beach.

Around the corner is the foundation of an old summer house. A bit of the plumbing is still intact, but not much else.

I love these old bricks, many of which are still laying about. They're cast with some kind of strange Illuminati or Free-Mason symbols. Can anyone, um, illuminate me?

Did you know conch shells grow on trees? That's the only explanation for what we found further along the beach. (Told you there'd be more...)

We took a short break on a thoughtfully-provided bench with a neighborly horseshoe crab.

The wife broke off after four miles and headed home to attend to a prior social engagement. Sister and I returned to the woods. There are dozens of miles of trails around here. Last time she was here we discovered we could hike all the way downtown while only crossing a couple of roads!

Today we explored a new path. I had a feeling this could bring us to the local cemetery.

On the way, we passed behind a couple of farms. It's another part of our community we'd never see if we stuck to the roads.

We saw some friendly sheep:

Horses...

And some cows.

We wondered what the tire swing was for, and the cow obliged us by going over and rubbing his chin against it.

Just up the hill from the last farm, we emerged into the local cemetery.

It looks especially stately in the grey and gloomy weather, don't you think?

Here was a little surprise:

Everyone knows that Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were good friends. But did you know they were buried together? In New England?

It seems strange, I know. But I have proof!

After chatting with the dead for a bit, sister and I made our way home for lunch. We hiked eight miles by noon!

Bonus Content: CHAINSAW!!!

Regular readers may recall that I've been getting familiar with a new chainsaw. This wonderful tool made me so nervous that I've actually read the instruction manual, twice.

Well, I'm pleased to report that the thing works brilliantly. And since the rain hadn't started back up yet, it seemed like the perfect day to press my sister into service taking down our first tree. (You know, because eight miles of hiking isn't enough exercise for one day.)

Sadly, I was so preoccupied with felling the tree and then getting it out of the road before the neighbors complained, that I didn't think to take any pictures until the thing was cut into sections. Still, pretty impressive, no?

Regular readers may also recall that I've got a solid, well running Volvo that won't pass an inspection. Well, the latest on that is, it makes for a great truck-tractor-workhorse for the homestead. It's a hell of a lot more effective than a wheel-barrow, anyway.

So that's it. Kayaking, three hours of hiking, and three hours of lumber-jacking.

The wind's blowing a regular gale out there again now, so I think we've fit in as much time outside as we possibly could in a rainy weekend.

How was yours? Did you get outside?

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