This is a scene from the upper end of the Central Valley in our woods. It's a nice part of our forest, an "earned" part as I sometimes call it because you have to hike to get there. (Yes, our woods is only a half mile by a quarter mile, but with the hills and ravines, the thick cedars and malevolent Blackjack Oaks, the ankle-twisting rocks, and even the presence of water in some places, it can still be a job getting from one place in the forest to another.) While not quite at the center of our woods, it is about as far from any of the neighbors as you can get, and since it is down in the valley, it's quiet. You can't hear any farm machinery or chainsaws or occasional gunshots or even sounds from the distant highway. This is a fine place to sit and contemplate the good fortune and bad luck that make up one's life. The stream flows -- when it flows -- off to the left in this photo, and this area is flat and relatively open. A perfect place for a picnic lunch or to take a break on a hot day with a bottle of iced tea (unsweetened, of course). With all that going for it, including that superbly sit-able log there, you would think I would spend a lot of time there, but I don't. Generally, when I reach this point in my woods it's because I am headed somewhere farther on, or I'm on my way back from there. The stream was our original avenue into and out of our woods (in the year or so before we had the road cut in). You can see why from the photo and what I described; it's open and relatively flat, and the stream runs the length of our property. Over the years we've cut back branches along the way to make our passage easier and our avenue has improved. But it's always been our route, not our destination. On a recent spring some wild hyacinths were blooming near here, and I barely stopped to smell the flowers. Also, Happy Darwin Day! Missouri calendar:

• Lincoln's Birthday
• Watch for otters on frozen water.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 1:01 am and is filed under General. 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.