Thankful Sunday--June 25, 2017

I am thankful for a walk in the woods.

Among the sweltering temperatures, frequent rains, and never-ending chores, it's been hard to find a good time to take a hike. However, yesterday I was able to make that happen.

In an attempt to beat the heat, Ward, Miss Landers, her dog, and I got an early start.  Besides beginning our outing in comfortable temperatures, we were also able to avoid the rain. The morning rain had just ended when we began and, in fact, I saw a rainbow. Everything worked out well during our hike and it was a great way to start the day. For this walk in the woods, I am thankful.

Here are a few pictures from our walk.

It was a good start to the day when I stepped out on my front porch and saw a rainbow in the sky before we even began the hike.

The first part of the trail was sunny and very narrow because the surrounding plants were invading it. 

However, we were soon in the woods where Ward stopped to tie his shoe.

We were on the blue trail, but we didn't really need trail markers. The path was wide and well established.

Unfortunately, we saw plenty mile-a minute vines and stilt grass (above and below the fungus), both invasive species. It brought back memories for me of fighting them at my old house.

We emerged one more time into the sun. Here we found lots of dried up grass. I think the very high, recent temperatures were more than it could handle. This grass also brought back memories of trying to get rid of it at my old house.

Although we left most of the poison ivy behind on the sunny part of the trail, we still found it in a few spots in the woods. This reminds me of poison ivy fights I'm having at my new house.

Miss Landers' dog had a great time investigating so many new things. There's nothing like the enthusiasm of a dog in the woods.

As we got closer to the stream, there was a proliferation of ferns.

At the end of the trail was an old schoolhouse. It looked like they were trying hard to keep vandals out. Tours are given once a month at the school and we're going to try to make the next one. 

In front of the school was a stream and we wondered about flooding. That's one of the questions we're going to ask when we take the tour.

We decided to turn around at the school because the morning was starting to warm up. The walk back was also pleasant except this time we were going up hill. Along the trail, we saw many small walnuts that had fallen prematurely from the trees probably during some recent storms. 

As we emerged back into the sunny part of the trail, we found milkweed blooming and black raspberries ripening. Then it was time to go home and start our day there.

I mentioned a few things we saw that reminded me of our old yard. What I didn't mention was so did the walnuts, poison ivy, day lilies, milkweed, and black raspberries.. And while most of these were invasive things that I was continually fighting, the recollections were not negative. The familiar plants brought back the memories of all that they taught me while I was trying to control them.