200918 A walk in the woods

 sept 17

 

The world is too much with us: the words have been knocking at my brain since yesterday. I have been feeling that I want to shut out for now the wider world of newsmedia. We are already in our second week of holiday and we spent a lot of yesterday talking about that world. As the novelty of our surroundings wore off, we thoughtlessly let the work-a-day news back in. I could feel the the "uptick" (to use the covid news buzzword of the year) of stress, the increased adrenaline level. I want to return in mind to our physical place, this little house, and the circle of cedars that shelters us from the wind and frames the star-scape in the black sky at night.

It is such a tonic for K and me to be together, no other person (except Fig) to distract us, to curtail our conversations and silences. On Wednesday we walked a trail into the forest: there was sometimes no sound but the wind in the trees and the running of a brook. Around us was bare forest floor as far as we could see, beneath the canopy of branches and now and then the sun shone through on a bed of ferns. We zig-zagged gradually up the mountain past dry gullies carved by spring run-off and streams that flow all summer, from proper springs I suppose. It was strangely empty of creatures, no squirrels or chipmunks, few birds: maybe there is enough wilderness here for the creatures to find unpeopled areas in which to live. There were some grandfather maple trees of great girth that rose tens of feet into the air, one that had been blasted by lightning was like a totem pole carved black, still pointing a blind finger at the sky.

A few photos from our walk. Ferns everywhere! My mother would love it. They grow all around our chalet, even.

               

                   

A stump becomes a world in itself, with mosses, mushrooms, lichen and ferns. I found a plant that doesn't have chlorophyll: I think it is a White Worm Lichen. Like mushrooms, lichens get food from the tree roots or other ground sources instead of producing their own with chlorophyll.

Keep well. Thank you for visiting. 

Mumma Yaga