Delight! Earlier this morning it rained some

I woke to clouds, grey, without shape, just overhead mass, those harbingers of rain, which have been not present much in two or three months. I thought, “I only wish.” And, lo an hour later, it rained!! Not a lot, not loudly, not at any windblown angle, not, in fact so that I’d notice even though I was sitting, having breakfast in front of the kitchen window, looking out at bird feeders, back porch, azalea bushes, dogwood tree, plum tree. I did not see the rain falling. I saw, when I opened the back door to bring the cats’ food can to the recycle barrel, that the ground was wet, the porch steps hosting drops in pleasant array. Ahh, good, I thought.

And it is. And then the clouds, emptied of their gift, slowly slid away, staging shifted for the next act, and the sun in full gold lit the drops of rain, dried surface after surface. I took my bicycle out of the shed and away I rode. (Ahead, I hoped, of the predicted “winds with gusts up to 17 mph”. I don’t fare well pedaling against neither gusts nor steady winds.)

It was a perfect morning to early afternoon ride. Sunlight not only bright, but sparkled off leaves, pebbles, slender branches, and the small, disparate but hope-inducing puddles and ponds gracing the asphalt, and bejeweling the forest floor. (Well, forest is a bit of an overstatement, but poetically it works, don’t you think?).

I am taking delight in all that I can.

White oak leaf bejeweled. Off the rail trail, I walked a short, .4mile path through a wood almost all oak and pine, with a couple of big tooth aspens inserting themselves.
and this, I believe a flaw, but it is a textural wonder, fallen with its host, a small tree, into a new receiving host–a ground covered by more textures than my eyes can understand
red pine, fairly close up
same red pine, same spot, closer up
And closer. The depth, the girth, the tautness, the layer-after-layer-after-layer of this red pine bark! And who knows what or who I have photographed here in the recesses of the, essentially, the surface of this tree. (Oh what a camera that is not of an iphone12mini could have seen!)

And, another gift, two miles from home, I ran into (not literally) a friend I haven’t seen in a couple of months, also on his bicycle, which was good for so many reasons!

And you know, I almost accomplished my home-ahead-of-the-headwinds goal. Only the last five minutes, that last 1/2 mile push UP to my “Highlands” (the name of my neighborhood) home, did I need (and boy did I need to!) to stand on my pedals and PUSHPUSHPUSHPUSH.

Got in and treated myself to a peanut butter sandwich on my friend E’s homebaked bread. So many pleasures.

Here’s an I-was-there proof shot.

I do wish you could see the brilliance of the colors that covered this rolling path. I can only attest, they were scintillating. And can you see the rolling terrain of the path? And, if you look closely on the ground, you will notice that at least one maple is in this woods, there is leaf just left of the shadow of my hand in front of my face

Whose woods these are, I think I know, his house is in the village though…. Thank you Robert Frost.

Actually these woods are a gift to the town in which they are, by a couple, last name Valentine, who gifted it for wildness into perpetuity. I thank them.

Peace to you and yours.

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Author: Kate Hemenway

I like to explore, to observe. I like to be within what is around. There is always something to wonder about and to ponder. There is always something.. My favorite ways to get to places are bicycling and walking; or reading, or thinking, or asking. Please feel free to ask back, as I continue to wonder out loud, express joy or concern, or, sometimes, talk through my hat.

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