There is a walk through the forest that provides delights in every season – but especially in the Winter. The Forest occupies the hillside and it is crisscrossed with old abandoned roads, wicker fences, deer and animal trails – go here to earn your tracking merit badge skills. And there is an access road named Johnson’s that changes to Smith’s at the township borderline – think of this lane as the anti-Frost “fences make for good friends”. This road for a stretch of a half a kilometer harbors tall pine, spruce and all sorts of their leafy neighbors [conifers, being the elder trees by a few hundred million years, look down upon their deciduous upstarts with their buds, blossoms and nuts].
Here is some of the meetings on a recent trek through the Woods.
This is OdinFather, a big Jack Pine that is lead conductor for the winds, weather and the sounds of music in the Woods. The opening to the county road is just down the lane and so OdinFather feathers and shapes the winds and thus orchestrates the Woods music that comes down that way. And on a hike where you get caught out in the rain, just duck under the branches for at most a gentle pine scented sprinkle.
But the fun of a walk in the Woods in the Winter is all the primping and showing off done by the deciduous denizens – its enough to put the Oscar’s red carpet posturings to shame.
Why who is that young good looker still clutching her summer charms among the big boughs.
Or ..
“Well that is hardly anything – just look down the sway”
“Hey big beau, how do you like my hews?”
Oops..
The glam holly gam has got the woods in a swirl …
As you can see the Woods are full of charms in the Winter as well as a break from the Chill Winds. But that brings out the talent smooches all over the hillside-
And so soon you find two old Jacks doing their own perma-dance.
So just in time, it take a regal presence –
all decked in snow ermine, to establish a little hauteur in my Neck of the Woods. Ahh, such elegance!
And to think, I am just halfway down the lane.