Some committee somewhere decided that the nature trail was too "natural" I guess and decided it would make for much faster traffic through the nature part if it is blacktopped.
Oh how my spirits dropped. First the forest, now the trail, when will it end...this progress? The only thing that made me feel better is that the workers asked me if I liked the improvement and when I said no, they said they didn't like it either. They said some progress is not an improvement. That people like the flowers and what not...oh well. Lots of creatures met their demise today.
Some chipmunks excavated themselves out from under all the fill and I hoped that they would relocate before they were sealed in with blacktop. I felt sorry for all the creatures trapped beneath the trail now...
With a big sigh of relief, we came to the end of the "improvements".
And left the sounds of construction behind us.
I always seem to be photographing things on their way to oblivion.
Timeless things that are doomed to fall by the wayside of man's desire to get from point A to point B faster.
Nature increasingly has to bow down to some concept of order which involves no dirt or bugs or chaos. But to me this new order is all about chaos.
So instead of watching squirrels and rabbits play in the grassy trail ahead of us, the fill seemed to stretch like a desert, disconnected from anything.
To make it easier for people to pass through while seeing nothing.
A crane stepped to the edge of the trail, and confused, turned back. While the dogs panted in the sun reflecting back and were anxious to be off.
And as always I dream about the day I sell my house and can move farther away from "improvements".
There is just not much people can build that seems very impressive in comparison to all the intricacies a woodlot has to offer.
I hope that all the improvements don't mean that dogs are the next to be prohibited.
Its a strange sort of world when you think about it though, a county that can't afford to remove snow all winter goes out of its way to pave a trail in the middle of nowhere.
But I suspect that nature is a bigger enemy to most than I can imagine.
Offending some sense of structure that makes the faint hearted uncomfortable.
As though they can somehow separate God from nature and make him love man best.
But I think nature will always be his favorite child.
We are just the backward ones that are tolerated.
Swatting horseflies off the dogs ears and stopping now and then to explore this thing or that, we meandered our way through the morning.
Until the heat of day gently turned us towards home.
And my photos and thoughts turned from joy at a beautiful morning to a eulogy for things lost pointlessly.
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