my own two feet

The other day at work I watched a coyote trot across the early-morning empty parking lot. Squirrels catch my eye as they run up the tree outside, and a flicker keeps trying to find a place to make a nest in the roof overhang. Could be worse while I sit at a desk in front of a computer all day!

But I do try to get outside when I can, just for a quick walk. I am lucky to have access to a lovely nature area (which would be even lovelier if we ever got any rain!). I guess Major and I are the same: we just like to explore.

towering oaks shade the path

their fallen leaves cushion the trail

buckeyes try to roll under foot

no daydreaming as you watch out for low-hanging branches

and don’t trip on the fallen ones either

The creek swirls by, salmon-habitat

and sparkles between walls of blackberry

blackberry vines also protect a secret

acorns nesting in an Indian grinding rock

probably for centuries, the Maidu Indians ground acorns here by the stream. What a perfect location.

lichen lives on mossy oak branches

old fencing appears between trees

oak galls hide harmless wasps

a hint of spring already, native iris leafing out

grudgingly heading back to the office

I can walk a couple miles in half an hour, and when I come back the day doesn’t seem so long. It is fun to watch the season turn, to see the buckeye leaf out, the stream fill with runoff, the blackberries ripen and for the hidden wildflowers and ferns to show themselves. Almost no one explores this hidden world steps away. They are the poorer for it, and I am enriched.