Gardening and harvest is winding down... a bit. I still have a pretty long list of things to do in these final days... some potatoes to still dig, garlic to plant, holding out until the last possible moment before calling it with the eggplants, peppers, beets, carrots, & leeks. I don't really want to think about the firewood. I have been so busy in the gardens and the kitchen that I haven't found time to slip into the woods...until today. DH offered to chainsaw anything that might be obstructing my trails but, before he lugged the chainsaw into the woods I needed to make an exploratory walk and assess what was needed. I knew this old pine needed to be cut and it is near the house. I was sort of dreading what I might find as to the state of my trails. I am not sure I will have time to maintain them this year but, I was pleasantly surprised! I think I can get by with very little brush cutting before the snow flies! Also, only 3 spots for chainsawing and not in the way back part of the trails. So here is a little explore down the too long neglected woods...though I am sure "they" don't feel neglected, except for, maybe, the Ravens.
The Ravens have returned to our woods from wherever they go for the summer. They have been croaking and swooping at me for the past week or so. I grabbed a handful of duck food to leave them below their nest. But, they better hurry since it looks like a squirrel is occupying the stump I use to leave offerings!
~~Pausing & Seeing~~~ small beauties along the way. Oh how, I have missed the woods and the slowing it brings to my busy self. This time of year is a mix of worn down life as well as brilliant beauty.
Autumn
What is sometimes called a
tongue of flame
or an arm extended burning
is only the long
red and orange branch of
a green maple
in early September reaching
into the greenest field
out of the green woods at the
edge of which the birch trees
appear a little tattered tired
of sustaining delicacy
all through the hot summer re-
minding everyone (in
our family) of a Russian
song a story by
Chekhov or my father on
his own lawn standing
beside his own wood in
the United States of
America saying (in Russian)
this birch is a lovely
tree but among the others
somehow superficial
“We depend on nature not only for our physical survival. We also need nature to show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our minds. We got lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating; lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems. We have forgotten what rocks, plants and animals still know. We have forgotten how to be – to be still, to be ourselves, to be where life is: here and now.” -Eckhart Tolle
