I am processing right now and don't feel like writing it all out just yet. So here's a picture.
When I was little I spent hours upon hours in the woods. Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone, sitting in a tree reading or wading in the stream.
I don't go to the woods nearly enough nowadays, if at all, and it is a damn shame. We're very worried about ticks and Lyme's disease these days, with good reason I suppose. We had plenty of ticks 30 years ago too, of course, but maybe they weren't as toxic?
All I know is whenever us kids went out to play there was always an annoying, monkey-grooming session when we got home. My mom got so sick of it she was all like, "If you insist on spending so much time in the woods, you're going to have to pick the ticks off yourself!" This was the ultimate threat because she knew what a wuss I was about stuff like that. Amazingly, it didn't deter me. And she still picked them off.
I did venture in last fall to take some pictures. By that time a lot of the underbrush had died back, and although there hadn't yet been freezing temperatures to sterilize the area, I felt a little safer.
The leaves on those little saplings in the foreground were bright yellow which is why they caught my eye. Though for some reason, the picture is more interesting to me in black and white.
Back soon. (Thanks, John.)
