Yesterday, for the first time this spring, I took a walk in Wolsfeld Woods SNA. I thought today that I would invite you to
Take a Walk in the Woods With Me
through photographs. I took only my 50 mm lens with me on my camera and a set of extension tubes for closeups and headed out on my hike.
As I began my walk I looked up and saw this pattern of branches and emerging leaves traced against the blue sky…
The floor of woods was mostly covered with dry brown leaves. But then this burst of green appeared beside a fallen log…
And when I looked to my right I saw a small colony of dutchman’s breeches wildflowers sheltered by a large tree trunk. I love the feathery leaves of this plant the and tiny stems of flowers…
I walked through an area with little green showing and suddenly entered an area with wildflowers all around me. I was surprise to see a violet in bloom already in the middle of a colony of rue anenome.
Many of the bloodroot wildflowers had already bloomed and lost their petals but I found areas with lots of them blooming all along my hike…
I love the way the bloodroot leaves wrap around the flower stem, often not fully emerging until the flower has bloomed and lost its petals. The leaf on this one was unusually open…
Bloodroot flowers usually live in colonies. When you find one of them you will often see others growing nearby. I love to think of them as a family of flower plants all related to one another…
One of the things I love most about being in the Big Woods is how I see the cycles of life taking place all around me. Tree trunks that went down in a storm feed the new lives of plants and bushes nearby…
When a large old maple tree falls in a storm it leaves a hole in the canopy of the forest in which new trees can find sunlight to help them grow. The large tree trunk in the background broke off in a storm. All that remains is about 6-8 feet of trunk. You can see fungi growing on the dead trunk and see how it now feeds emerging new life…
I sat for awhile on a downed tree trunk and looked up at the tracery of branches against the blue sky. Soon the sky will be barely visible beneath these sugar maple tree branches. That’s why the spring ephemeral wildflowers pop up so early in the spring, blooming and reproducing before the trees that shelter them cut off their source of light…
I always see things differently when I retrace my steps back to the entrance to the woods. On the way out I hardly noticed this trunk of a dead tree. But looking from a different angle I loved seeing the vertical rows of fungi growing on it…
I take one last gaze up towards the sky as I near the parking lot at the edge of these woods, feeling awe and appreciation for the magnificent trees.
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
— Mary Oliver
May you walk in beauty.
0 Comments