Woods Walk

Walked a few miles atop a mountain near town in which the woods undergrowth is mostly ferns. They are an extremely successful species having originated some 360 million years ago and in the modern forms for some 145 mya.  The permanent puddles are filled with peeper tadpoles and one other larger species-probably a wood frog. The truck has been rotting in that spot ( about a mile from the road) for as long as I have been living here-13 years-and no doubt longer than that. It takes decades for nature to reclaim the metal, and without road salt accelerating the rust, it might be most of a century. This was just another walk, filled with dusky skippers, a few bothersome deer flies and a good hard climb. I have had thousands of such walks with nothing out of the ordinary happening yet filled with the benefits of both nature and physical exercise. They fall away from my conscious memory unless preserved in my journal or here, but I presume they have lodged somewhere in my subconscious. There is a certain well earned serenity I enjoy that I suppose has come now that the anxious lessons of youth have been experienced, and I feel fortunate that I yet have the health and freedom to walk where and when I like.

Buzzard Swamp in spring

   It has been almost six months since I walked Buzzard Swamp, where back in November there were bald eagles and the first dusting of snow. Two days ago tree swallows were common and I noticed this robin egg in which an unfortunate fly had become stuck in the yolk while trying to have a meal. Those swallows look cold but the temperature was in the mid sixties so their huddled appearance is misleading. Geese and red wing blackbirds were also abundant in the open marshy fields, as were angle wing butterflies and a few cabbage butterflies. It is still early spring here with an incomplete canopy and the first blossoms like dandelion, adders tongue, violets and mustard.