Loosened from the mud, I find myself floating in a world of possibility.

So can you.



october day



Hello from the woodlands! Autumn is here in all her cool beauty. The leaves have changed and dropped, the air is more crisp and the fire is burning brighter. Everything tastes and smells of Fall. There is so much going on in my little world yet it still feels good to get carried away by the season.


My foraging frenzy has tapered off, made less so by generous friends who are sharing their bounty (got a ton of chicken of the woods last night).


I try not to fall in the trap of thinking this land is infertile. It is disturbed land that was leveled some thirty years ago to make for the development of a recreational community that quickly went bankrupt after total denuding of the area. The trees around us are young-ish.  It makes me wonder if my inability to find hens and chickens (of the woods) is because the trees are young and healthy (healthy meaning devoid of a fungi decomposition but then decomposition is essential to a healthy ecosystem). I've just come to the realization that the word 'fungi' does not refer to the mushroom themselves but the entire system laying underground.


There is plenty for me to savor, plenty that others have produced for me to taste. "Raw" here means unpasteurized and since this is non-alcoholic it is the perfect drink for an Autumn afternoon.


So I distract myself by chopping wood. Lots and lots of woods. Having read just the beginning of Norwegian Wood I find myself wondering what kind of wood chopper I am. 


Easily distracted again by this puffball mushrooms which would have been edible last weekend but not now.


The woods girl finds a frog which she likes to hold but doesn't like when it is moving.



The sun appears on the road so we grab our cameras for some photos.




And then there is the archery. The trick with the cooler weather is to keep moving which we do while the Big D builds the fort. Soon it will be time for us to join in the work but not quite yet.



I am grateful that my family are doing fine after being brushed by the recent hurricane down in Florida. But my mother is still moving steadily towards the end of her life. I feel broken and divided by her struggle with glioblastoma. She has deteriorated rapidly since we got the diagnosis in January and we all know that there are very few days left for her. Yet she is down in Florida and it is difficult for me to get down there on a regular basis. We've had a troubling relationship but I was able to speak my truth and she was able to listen so now I feel tenderness towards her. The loss of my daughter's granny is unbearable.


I sit here at my city computer and think on how these October days are some of the best out in the woods. The days are filled with love and warmth and that is something she would want us to experience.







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