July went down as the hottest month ever recorded in North Carolina history, but what a surprise, August turned out to be the coolest August in over thirty years. With all the recent medical appointments we didn’t get out much to enjoy the fresh air, but on Labor Day we did get a chance to walk out in the woods.
We kept thinking we were hearing a creek’s water running but finally figured out it was a breeze stirring the leaves above our heads. The first autumn we were here we learned to look up if we wanted to see any leaf colors, and we applied that lesson this day, looking up to see the leaves, still in their lovely summer greens.
It was slow going and there were many stops for Tim to catch his breath, but we managed to walk three quarters of a mile and he seemed none the worse for wear after we got home. The rests gave us time to notice all sorts of little treasures on the forest floor, too.
A woman once described a friend of hers as being such a keen listener that even the trees leaned toward her, as if they were speaking their innermost secrets into her listening ears. Over the years I’ve envisioned that woman’s silence, a hearing full and open enough that the world told her its stories. The green leaves turned toward her, whispering tales of soft breezes and the murmurs of leaf against leaf.
~ Linda Hogan
(Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World)
My respiration and inspiration….the beating of my heart….the passing of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves.
~ Walt Whitman
(Leaves of Grass)
THAT is my kind of walk; appreciating the smallest details that I can often just hurry by.
May September be as beautiful!
I am feeling hopeful about September! I do miss our Connecticut walks, Janet, and all the little things we used to notice and appreciate together.
Forest delights! 💕
So many pleasant sights, sounds, and smells to take in! ♡
A perfect walk in the woods Barbara and, as you said, those brief pauses for Tim to catch his breath, were perfect for a mini-exploration and look what you found. I do think that fungus is turkey tails. I’ve never seen them but I follow the Environmental Interpretative Center on Facebook and they share their small woodland finds, like wildflowers and different fungi. I remember they said in the caption under the photo that the fungus looks like a fanned-out turkey tail. How odd to find cooler weather in August, but that was like here, after a horribly hot and humid July. My energy bill has never been that low for the month of August – that’s for sure.
Good news from me … today at the Park I saw eight squirrels, including one Eastern Gray squirrel – first time for a gray squirrel since Winter. Two black squirrels and the rest were Fox Squirrels. I had one Fox squirrel sniffing my walking shoe tip and another Fox squirrel dancing around my feet for peanuts. Today I took the camera, hoping to get a couple of shots and got quite a few … I hope they all came out. I used the point-and-shoot camera as I usually do, but the sun was strong and difficult to see as I could only see myself a lot of the time. I am hopeful we are turning a corner as to my furry friends, but none of them were nursing mamas, so hopefully they were in the nest with their kits. It was fun to see them looking down at me while coming headfirst down the tree or peering at me from a fork/branch of a tree.
Thanks for the confirmation on the turkey tails. The colors were so striking, a sharp contrast to the gray log. I’m glad you got a break on your energy bill for August. It felt a bit strange and makes me wonder what other weather surprises we might have coming this year.
I’m so happy for your hopeful squirrel news!!! I hope you’ll see more of them each time you go and I know you will make new friends and soon be writing about all their personality quirks and antics. It’s strange that we didn’t see any squirrels on this walk, but maybe we’ll start seeing them as they get busy preparing for winter.
I like the Interpretive Center’s newsletters and Facebook posts as there is always something new to learn. They had some large turkey tails and compared them to the fanned-out tails of the wild turkeys that are always roaming around near the Center. I’ve got some photos of those turkeys taken this Spring, but I am saving them for a post on Thanksgiving week. They also featured some wildflowers in their Spring newsletter, so I went the same week and found the same wildflowers, so they were already identified for me, didn’t even have to Google images.
I actually cranked the heat to 73 for a while today as it got very cold in here set at 72 degrees We are getting to 80 and humid for Wednesday – personally I’d rather keep it the way it is. I would like to get out for more walks, but have Andrew coming tomorrow for the landscape work, the generator guy on Thursday for an annual tune-up and I want to get my COVID and flu shots hopefully this week. I’ve not even started getting in groceries as it was so hot for so long and when it was nice, I tried to get out for some long walks and photos.
I am ecstatic to see more squirrels and happy to be able to tell you that. I’ve not looked at the photos I took yesterday and I was excited to have the two dancing around my shoe and one stepping on my shoe – like old times. So, I hope it will get better from here. It was a good time to return because of them burying those peanuts for Winter. While each one ate peanuts, I also watched them run away and bury a few as well, so they are in hunting-and-gathering mode already.
Your Interpretive Center’s newsletters and Facebook posts sound like the ones I see from the botanical garden. Like you, I’m always learning something new, like how some asters have only disc florets and others have a disc and ray florets. The florets aren’t really petals. It’s no wonder it takes so long to learn botany and that you can get a master degree in it, and an extra 3-5 years to get a PHD, too. I’m glad you found a great way to identify your local flowers!
I hope Andrew finally gets things done the way you want them to be done! Tim & I are getting our covid shots tomorrow but we’re waiting until October to get our flu shots. The epidemiologist recommends that month for maximum protection during flu season and that’s worked for us in the past. I’m happy our Trader Joe’s finally reopened after it got flooded in July. Now I can get their good salmon again. It’s amazing how dependent we can get on certain suppliers.
It was so nice to read that squirrels were approaching your shoes again, and burying your peanuts, as you say, like old times! 🙂
I really have enjoyed the newsletters and Facebook posts and every fourth Thursday they have had an hour-long walk with a naturalist/photographer. I saw it last year after subscribing to the newsletter and made my mind up I would join them in this free walk this year. It would be fun I thought. The first one, April 24th, it was to be 85 degrees at 2:30 when the walk began, so I decided to go myself in the morning to see the wildflowers myself and be home by noon latest. I never walk that late in the day in Summer and coincidentally by the time I got back to the car at noonish, it was already 80 degrees. Not going that day might have been a mistake as every Thursday since it rained that event day and in the afternoon. The last walk in August, the weather was fine, but it is really a rustic trail and since I’ve tried to avoid any trails in the woods due to our tick explosion I didn’t go. I’ve not been there in several months now.
As to Andrew, I was sorry I mentioned it to you – he never showed up Barbara. I am annoyed because I kept telling him all Summer he could put other customers ahead of me as I had no intention to plant or put out pots or hummingbird feeders this Summer. So he confirmed by e-mail last Sunday for today. I was ready, sitting here at 8:15 a.m., with the car run, garbage out (our garbage day) and he never called, e-mailed, nor showed up, nor were materials delivered (I even gave him the benefit of the doubt for that). It was a beautiful day – I think he never wrote down the appointment and when he calls, I’ll tell him to wait until Spring now. I really need to find a handyman though and he was going to do the gutters. I didn’t want to commit to any handyman in case he called tonight or e-mailed which he did not.
Well, that makes sense waiting for the flu shot – to be honest, I was not excited to have the two shots and then spend time feeling nauseous or sleepy. I have to plan around my allergy shots, so that was my main reason for getting the two together.
I am so happy about the squirrels and though it sounds crazy to be happy about them dancing around my feet again – anything that has that “feel-good” “old-times feel” is welcome this year.
P.S. – Hope everything goes well with your COVID shots you will be getting today.
Argh! You have the worst luck when it comes to handymen, Linda!
Turns out we didn’t get our covid shots. When we showed up for the appointment we were told we needed a prescription, even though the website that gave us the appointment said we didn’t need one if we were over 65. So we went home and Tim spent the afternoon on the phone trying to figure out what exactly we had to do get a shot. Now we have an appointment on Monday at a Minute Clinic 45 minutes away from here, and a prescription from our doctor just in case, although the nice woman on the phone said we didn’t need one, which was our original understanding. If the current administration means to sow confusion they have certainly done so. When we showed up for the appointment yesterday the clerk at the vaccination window acted like we were trying to get her to break the law. I’m sure a lot of people are just going to give up trying to get their booster shots.
That’s terrible, not to mention wrong, but I’m glad you got it all squared away now. Yes, it is so confusing and I thought to myself that it is suddenly good to be a senior citizen as it is easier? Funny, I don’t think I’ve ever called myself a senior citizen and I’ve been 65 for four years. I called the CVS by me – they have not been carrying the Moderna vaccine for awhile, but I checked and they’re not now either, so I had to contact another nearby CVS store. Their phone message said to contact them re: availability so I had to leave a message and their message said “if you want us to book it, leave the info re: time and type of vaccine and they would book it” so I told them and said “I’m a senior citizen, 69 years old.” Yikes -they called me back 15 minutes later. It is a rigamarole to book it online sometimes and takes a while – I think you said Tim usually books your vaccines. So she called me back and I go Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. I will defer my flu shot until October as you suggested – although you and Tim are with more people than me as to getting the flu shot. Once I am finished loading my groceries, (which I have not started yet as I decided since the landscaper didn’t show up, I was treating myself to long walks yesterday and today with lots of photos) and I’ll work out in the yard tomorrow before it rains on the weekend. The temps are back in the 80s again, so I’ll hold off any long walks again ’til it’s cooler. It was 80 when I got back to the car today. The landscaper was to trim high bushes as I don’t want to climb up on a ladder past the second step and he said “I’ll throw in all the bushes for you” so I said “great” for the same price, so I don’t know whether to contact him or not about this work, but clearly forgetting me was rude. He was going to be doing the gutters, so I need to find a handyman either way before the leaves all fall. It’s very frustrating.
Sounds like getting the vaccine is just as confusing where you are as it is here! I hope getting our flu shots won’t be this much trouble. Sometimes I feel like we’re as frantic as the squirrels, trying to prepare for the winter so we’ll have enough food to make it through. Apparently the price of groceries will keep climbing so you’re very wise to get ahead of it.
Yes, it was strange as the website made it appear that you really had to pay attention as to availability of the type of COVID vaccine before booking and also make appointments now due to availability. I wondered if they meant a limited shipment overall or a limited amount of specific vaccine types like Moderna, Pfizer, etc. I’m going tomorrow, so I’ll have it and no worries … for now anyway. I hope you both get your shots without incident. It’s going to rain/storm (not severe) on Saturday, so I might as well get the shot as I’ll be inside anyway (hopefully not feeling lousy from the shot).
We now have above-average temps for the next 10-14 days … so an early Fall is not here to stay. So I will likely wait until the beginning of October to start loading in groceries. I should have done it while it was cooler, but then I jumped at the chance to get some long walks in with the camera. In fact I went again today – the generator tech comes for the tune-up NEXT Thursday not today. I don’t know how I confused that and the 25th the furnace tech comes for a checkup. I was going to work in the yard today while he was there – he takes about 90 minutes and I usually chat with him, but when he turns the generator on to run it with the hood open, it is very loud, so I’d be outside if he needed me, etc. I went to the Detroit River and thought of you as there were about 15 seagulls at Bishop Park, so I took a lot of shots of them. Went to BASF Park, about a mile away and walked through town taking some shots of their wooden sculptures – a little street photography, so two posts out of one excursion I think. When I got to BASF Park I saw about 35 seagulls on the platform where the rowing club rowers climb into the skiffs and launch them. That is where the Wyandotte Boat Club is. The seagulls were snoozing or staring into space. The sun was not cooperative and I hope it did not blur the images too much as it reflected off the water, but it will make a nice faraway shot hopefully.
Nice to see you were back in the woods again! I love the little details that you notice. Happy to hear you had some weather that let you get out there. I’m back in school and haven’t had time for the blogs as much as I’d like. Trying to get caught up a bit this morning.
It was so nice to take this walk – sometimes Carolina North Forest looks like nothing but very tall trees and those little details are hard to spot. The trees down here seem to be much taller than the ones in New England – even the birds are harder to see way up there.
What a pleasant walk … and I’m glad you finally got some decent weather to enjoy it in! Those fungi are interesting — I confess that’s not the sort of thing I stop to inspect, but I’m glad you did!
I can understand the fascination with fungi that some people have, but I’m much more captivated by flowers. They are few and far between deep in woods, though, because not much sun penetrates through the tree canopy!