"If you spend much time outside, you will be taught how to truly experience
every element, for no rock, leaf, or log will go unexamined, no rustling bush
will be overlooked, and even the very air will be inhaled, pondered, and noted as being full of valuable information. Your pace may be slower --except when heading home to the food dish -- but you will become a better naturalist,having been taught by an expert in the field."
We began our walk lingering by the large lake, enjoying a perfect day and all the hungry trout enjoying life beyond the ice of winter.
The big ones from years past and the new little guys from last fall and even a brown trout here and there.
It was just one of those beautiful lazy days that both the dogs and I love so much.
While we chatted, the dogs explored everything, including checking out the boat as if verifying that winter had returned everything.
We were off on a walk then, with the slightest hints that the forest will soon be changing quickly.
Buds appearing right before my eyes.
Everything geared up for that mad explosion that spring will be shortly.
Soon the ragged edges of winter will be a memory. The forest is already full of activity, insects and birds.
And Domino is beside himself with happiness lying in his favorite mud hole. He actually wags his tail when he sees it, like greeting a favorite friend!
I can give no great account of the jesters I share my life with...
"Too many times we hike on automatic pilot, our goal being to complete the
trail rather than enjoy the journey. We miss the details -- the colorful
mushrooms on the rotting log, the honeycomb in the old maple snag, the hawk feather caught on a twig. Once we walk as a dog does, we discover a whole new world. We stop; we browse the landscape, we kick over leaves, peek in tree holes, look up, down, all around. And we learn what any dog knows: that nature has created a marvelously complex world that is full of surprises, that each cycle of the seasons bring ever changing wonders, each day an essence all its own."
For those who wish dogs could talk, I would have to say on days like today, that would be a sad thing. I think dogs do just fine looking at the world the way they do, noting everything, judging nothing.
We wandered, pausing often to note the water striders emerging on the lake, the silk of spiders busy at work in their endless quest to span the entire lake, and the birds busy building their nests in the cliffs along the lake. A pair of wood ducks took flight as we walked and their cries were eerie through the trees. The pair of trout who make the lake their home sunned on the surface but were soon a flash as soon as they saw our movement.
As always in the spring, the light changes often depending on where we are.
And the tiniest clues give us an excuse to pause.
And sometimes my photos are mere memos of how the light hit a certain thing.
Personal scratches that have no meaning to anyone but me.
But it is said of Thoreau that he documented Walden so well that scientists can now look back and see how the flora and fauna have changed. I think Thoreau might have understood my shorthand very well.
Its just about being so familar with a place that every little thing is noted along the way.
Which makes everything ever changing.
After exploring along the trail, we perched high on the rocks and sat for a very long while, reluctant to move away from the sun. Every now and then Domino would dash down below to lounge in the water, tail wagging.
Dashing back up the trail to join us in the sun until he got too warm again.
With all the snow and ice gone, we are back to using the rockier trail and every rock is another great perch to enjoy the sun and view.
With bees buzzing in full force and even a few mosquitoes stopping by to see how we tasted, summer seems like a breath away.
As the afternoon hummed on into early evening, we all reluctantly hit the trail home.
About as pleased with a day well spent as anyone can be on a day when time was spent on nothing in particular.
"It does not matter that there is no objective in this; the point is in the doing, in not letting life's most important details slip by."
Excerpts from The Journey by Crystal Ward Kent
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