What do you suppose happens in the forest when no one is watching? On an intellectual level I know that the forest simply goes on as it has for ages: living, dying, rotting, growing, birth, and death. The wind blows. The deer browse. The squirrels scamper. The turkeys forage. The leaves fall. But on a more imaginative level, I wonder if it is different. Take the round rock wedged in the tree in the photo above. When I came upon it recently, the rock was on the ground at the base of the tree, but I know I had shoved it into the space between the trunks a year or so ago. I pushed it down hard to make sure it would stay in place. Yet it had gotten loose and made a run (roll?) for it. Now, I know that the wind probably set the trunks swaying and at some point there was enuf give between them to let the rock slip loose and fall to the ground. But maybe that isn't what happened. Maybe the deer came along in a moment of mischief and nudged the stone loose. Maybe the raccoons or opposums tugged it out. I wonder if the animals sit in our comfy chairs under the shady tarp overlooking the empty lake and visit. Swap stories. Give each other updates on where there is food to be had. Offer critical analysis of the stewardship of the man who thinks he owns the land. I thought that the new game camera might be able to help answer these questions, but I figure the animals are too clever for that and will act like animals before it. Do the rocks in the creek even continue to exist when I'm not around? Does the whole place just dissolve into mist and only reassemble as I approach? In a way it's just hard to believe that the forest has any existence apart from my experience of it. I know that's not true, but I sometimes wonder. I think FC has a birthday today. Why don't you go over to his blog and wish him well. (He's still older than I, and by my calculations, always will be!) Missouri calendar:

• Bobcats breed through June.

Today in Missouri history:

• The next seven days seem to have nothing remarkable connected to them in Missouri history.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 am and is filed under General, Indulgent Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.