This morning I headed out early. I mean real early. I woke up at four-thirty and got up shortly after. Around eight,  I decided I might as well drive on up to Red Top Mountain, one of my favorite places.

I’ll confess: I got coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts first. And a donut, a pumpkin donut. Then I headed up the road.

I had planned to write a blog about fall and take some pictures to go with it. Not very original, I know, but I do love fall. And being awake in time to see the early morning sunshine on the first sunny day we have had in a while was exhilarating.

I thought I would take some pictures of fiery maple leaves catching the sun. Of the bright turquoise water and the blue, blue sky. Of dewdrops sparkling in the still-wet grass.

But this is what I got.

And this.

A misty morning. The woods around the lake seemed hushed and the mist on the water ghostly and mysterious.

I was reminded of one quarter in college – (we still had quarters back then in the er, um,  70’s) – when my roommate was studying in Germany and I lived with some friends, at Furman University, on campus in a building called “the shack.” Living at the shack was a privilege reserved for seniors, and such a good time we had. The shack looked kind of like a log cabin, smelled faintly of wood smoke, and was all the way across the lake from the regular dorms.

Each morning I would walk across the lake on the footbridge, either to my first class or to “cold breakfast.” (I never made it up in time for “hot breakfast.”) Many mornings mist floated above the water, shrouding my path in mystery. I love mornings – although my husband might disagree because I do not wake up exactly cheerful – but these mornings, especially, I have never forgotten.

Like snow, in a way, mist seems to make familiar surroundings look different. Perhaps they seem a bit strange, often magical. The difference, to me, seems in some ways promising. Who knows what this day will hold?

By the time I left, the mist was burning off and the water sparkled in the sun. I headed back to the “real world” actually glad I had woken up at such an early hour.