This week has been cloudy and damp, and everything has a gray cast over it, though sometimes there are pearly gray clouds. Which, in some ways, is comforting. How it looks on the outside is a little how it feels on the inside. The pinch of winter can be a solace just like the balm of spring. Sometimes I don’t want to be cheered up, you know? And, it felt a little dry last week, so I welcome the rain in the face of mushroom season really beginning. Morels will be here before you know it. At least I hope they will be.
I have a new routine these days, just like everyone else. With school out, I am much busier–online school is a lot more work than you would think. Walks have turned into essential forays for time alone. I take a walk around 7 a.m. Going early is a good time, as no one else is out. This morning it was raining, raw and cold, but I could still breathe in the earthy smell of mushrooms (wishful thinking? or mycelium waking up?) and the faint diluted scent of fox. The painted maples’ striped bark stands out in the rain, and their buds are just splitting open. Cold drops of rain gather on branches looking like heavy silver beads. The blossoms of red maples create a scarlet haze on the other side of the pond.
The beavers have been busy, as usual, and they’ve bolstered their dam on the pond. I am always amazed at their neat work. This year the shape of the dam is a little different; they seem to have pulled it back from the trail. I’ll bet they were working all night, as the water pooled up at the dam was filled with foamy bubbles. Why else would bubbles be in the water if it wasn’t from the paddling of feet and pounding of big flat tails? I wonder what the animals think is going on. I’m sure they notice something is different in our world.
As I said, these walks are essential, and I take them throughout the day. My son and I go for a school break during the day. In the evening, I try to just walk the perimeter of the property. Honestly, it’s harder to feel the benefit these days, especially with the gloomy weather, but I know it’s real. Walking gives me a feeling of accomplishment, when the feeling of accomplishment is hard to come by. Even when that feeling is minute, it’s important to keep going.
I’m not posting any extra notes today, because I, for one, am overwhelmed with all the things foisted upon us to do and learn and see. Busy beavers, indeed. Don’t read or learn or do anything, okay? You know, unless you want to.
Julia Sforza 