Easily Entertained!

Today Thomas and I took about an hour and walked through our woods. The summer has been so hot and dry that our beloved woods had little appeal. But with a four inch rain a few days ago and this morning's temperature in the mid-50s the woods seemed to be calling our name.

We dressed for the walk. That means an appropriate head-covering, long overalls, long-sleeved shirts, with bug spray around the neck and ankles. We hope the cool weather will discouage the ticks, but you can't be too careful.

As I mentioned, we are easily entertained! Our entertainment budget consists of bird seeds and Netflix fees. The walk in the woods is included in the mortgage! On today's walk we saw the effect of the recent storms. Now and then we found dead branches that had fallen across the path but nothing so big that we couldn't pick it up and toss it to the side. When a tree falls across the path Thomas will come in with his chain saw and remove it. Otherwise we call it our wild woods and so it is.

The drought made the leaves of the underbrush drop early, but for the most part the foliage is still clinging to the trees. Even a few wildflowers are blooming.
(This is the part of the walk when I wish our friend Sylvia was with us. She knows the name of each one of these, I'm sure.)





As we entered the woods a turtle scurried into the dead leaves. I recognized a scratched mark on the shell and made every effort to get the photo of the mark to compare with earlier photos but "Turti" didn't want to cooperate.

So I had to move him to get a clearer angle. (No turtle was injured in the taking of this photo. I did not make the scratched mark on his shell.)




The turtle was not the only living thing that was camouflaged in its surroundings. Can you find the butterfly in this photo? It is colored like a moth, but it holds its wings like a butterfly, so I am assuming butterfly





While I was photographing the butterfly Thomas discovered a jawbone...




...and along the way, down by the creek, we saw several deer hoof prints in the soft soil. (I continue to wonder if someone doesn't come into our woods with a pogo stick that has a deer hoof on it. Otherwise how do we get a singular hoof print? Tell me that.)

At the end of our walk an angel appears! A special gift from friends in Kentucky when my work with Hospice of the Bluegrass came to an end in 1996. When we moved to this house I made an area in the edge of our woods especially for the angel. In the spring daffodils pop up around it. At the peak of summer the angel is hidden by undergrowth. But with autumn the leaves fall and the angel appears again, and with its appearing, sweet memories of Appalachia come to mind. As I said, we are easily entertained!