at home in the woods

sunrise:  6:18

Great dog news -- Clara and the mallard pair seem to be getting along.  So I'll keep up my hopes that they will nest here and we'll have babies!

I have mentioned my summer experiences at an Adirondack lake, but my woods connections didn't only come from there.  Behind my childhood home was a many acre wood - rock outcroppings, a long steep hill, nooks to hide in and create imaginary adventures amongst snow or leaves or moss.  One particular friend and I spent hours adventuring as international spies or wilderness survivalists out there.

And I had another spot that was my own private place - high up in a monstrous white pine that had a natural platform where four huge branches diverged.  It was my "silver chamber," so named because of how the light of sunset sparkled on bristly clusters of wet pine boughs surrounding me.

I know that my attraction to the woods comes from those childhood years.  This little spot out back appealed to me this morning.  I love birch trees - and this appeared particularly white today.  It reminded me of a ballerina doing a split.  Trees work so tenaciously to find a foot hold on any ground, and this one had a long rock to work around.

Writing about Rachel Field's childhood in western Massachusetts makes me feel close to her because of my outdoor connections, and tromping around the woods on her island, and mine, does the same.  I hope my children will carry something like that with them into their adult years as well.

 

Birch, rock, moss and leaves.  Something about all of it gives me peace inside.