A fast moving cold front left us with three inches of rain Saturday and a wonderfully cool morning today. So I laced up my boots, grabbed my walking stick and a cup of coffee and took off into the woods for a morning stroll. A nice ramble with no particular destination is always a great way to greet a new day, week or year.
Large dew covered spider webs graced the fence over the pig paddock. I looked carefully while passing but discerned no noticeable message to this farmer in the weaving. Opening the gates leading from the orchard to the pastures I strolled along a fence line separating the barn field from the upper field as Becky joined me. The cattle lumbered down from the top of the hill towards me with an expectant air that went unfulfilled. We strolled on into the woods.
Entering the woods we walked across the wet weather stream that issued from the hillside further up. We followed the meandering forest road that wends for over a quarter of a mile up to our back pastures. The sunlight was just starting to cascade over the ridge spilling into the woods. Shafts of light layered above my head like rock strata, or like a cathedral window carefully positioned to optimize sunlight. It was beautiful.
Becky startled a doe from her morning repose and treed a squirrel. The sunlight was penetrating deeper into the woods creating minor eclipses as a tulip poplar or white oak slid across the face of the sun. We walked on up the hill towards our back pastures. Standing at the edge for a moment, balanced between light and shade, we turned back into the coolness of the woods.
I was keeping my eye out for a pawpaw tree. Last night we dined at a friend’s cabin on the edge of the Cherokee forest. While walking the creek before dinner we feasted on wild pawpaws. A first for me, the pawpaw is our only native temperate tropical fruit, tasting of a cross between bananas and mangoes. We left that evening having secured permission to transplant several small seedlings. But I had hoped to find some on our land.
With no success we turned our feet towards home. Back down the forest road, across the stream and up into the barn pasture I walked with Becky by my side. Arriving at the barnyard I did the morning chores and headed back into the house. Cindy had a bowl of oatmeal waiting for me.
