Quiet Times: Walking on the trails

 

The forest creates its own sculpture

The air is tinged with autumn

cool wind is blowing

the forest summons

I must go.

 

Turn right onto the perimeter trail

charmed by little painted rocks

tucked here and there

down the big beech trail

where I linger in fern alley

scan the big trees for beech nuts

then cross the sluggish stream on rocks.

 

I’m on my way to the sacred circle

which I haven’t seen since April.

 

The wind blows

the trees sway and creak

crows are raucous today

I pause at the sacred circle then up the hill and left

back onto the perimeter trail.

 

Pass the concrete chicken

then tread through a conifer stand

steps soft on pine needles and listen

the wind blowing through the pines

is enough to bring me to a standstill

for a moment I am a child again

sitting on a fence-top beneath two big pines.

 

Now across the old road, and what is THIS?

It is one-two-three seedlings of sassafras!

My great grandmother taught me

three shapes of leaves

roots that make a delicious tea

I have not seen a sassafras in the woods here;

surely there is a big one around

somewhere

but I cannot find it.

 

Onward downward I make the turn

cross over the wooden bridge

back up the perimeter trail

pausing to rest on the bench.

 

As I begin the final uphill stretch

I notice mold around a beech tree

then –

what are those white furry things covering the branch?

Could it be dancing aphids?

They are motionless until I smack the branch with my walking stick

they all start to dance

waving their tiny white furry selves

both fascinating and revolting

so I take a video

and do my own delighted dance

out of the forest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUtLnj6TPlw

Did I hear someone ask, "What's a concrete chicken?"

Quiet Times: Mushrooms dot the forest

 

Can you find a rhyme or reason for mushrooms?

Can you even define them

the fleshy spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus

that’s Wikipedia for you.

 

Do mushrooms appear after it rains

in the autumn

when there is a dead tree

after fairies have danced?

A colony of fairies must live in my yard.

 

Fungus we are told is an underground tree root communicator

some people can tell edible from poisonous

toadstool denotes the latter

I would never try!

 

Lately

mushrooms light up the forest 

white cream yellow orange red

one day a little ball

the next a full umbrella

or other fantastic shape

maybe a clumped colony

or something that looks like ocean coral

on the forest floor on a dead tree 

higher up where you don't think to look

some tiny unremarkable

others dramatic showy

look at the size of that thing!

They vanish quickly.

 

Fungi appear to be (mostly) friends of the forest

our friends too

in ways we do not yet fully comprehend.

Fairy ring in my yard

Poetry and images by Cheryl Lawrence