Walking in a Springtime Wonderland

The weather up here in Northern NY is amazing.  I can actually go outside without a coat in the afternoon and early evening.  It's especially amazing when you consider the frost we had this morning.  I'm definitely not putting any plants out yet!

After work I convinced my husband to take a walk with me in the nearby forest.  The last time we tried the ground was too soggy.  There are still over-saturated sections, but there are ways around them.  It's difficult avoiding getting into the forest and this creates a physical boundary between "this world" and "the other world."

The more I explore this new forest, the more comfortable I become there.  I'm slowly learning the landmarks and enjoy studying them.  There's a beautiful small boulder covered in bluish lichen and green moss.  It looks like a tiny Earth.  There's also a small rocky hill.  That's one neat feature of the forests here.  Although there were a few large stones behind my parents' house, they were few and far between.  This forest is almost as rocky as the mountainous Adirondack forests, only the land is significantly flatter.  It's interesting.

After a few minutes in the forest, I found myself wishing I had something to offer the spirits of the place.  I've been meaning to make peace with them.  I must remember to do that soon.  The best offering I can see myself making at this moment is an afternoon spent picking up the copious amounts of litter.  There is so much garbage there.  Some of it probably blew in from the development.  The rest was undoubtedly dragged up there by environmentally ignorant people.  There seem to be a lot of those in this neighborhood.  I actually shooed (in a gentle, polite way) a child off my lawn the other day.  She was ripping a branch off the young tree in front of our apartment.  Who does that?  I mean, for one, it angers me that anyone would unceremoniously rip - not cut but RIP - a branch from a tree.  In addition it's on my small patch of lawn in front of my apartment!  If you're going to be so disrespectful to nature, at least don't trespass while you're doing it!

But I digress.  This weekend I'm attending a reiki workshop in Utica followed by celebrating the Spring Equinox in Syracuse.  I think next week would be a good time to start picking up the litter.

I'd also like to do some sketching next time.  There were some lovely mushrooms.  I actually sketched a mushroom last night, only it's based purely on fantasy.*

 


* For my lj friends: http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/