Tag: woods (page 1 of 2)

Hunger

I love to dance. I am constantly dancing around the house while doing stuff and I used to have the perfect spot in the woods where I could bust a move if I so chose. However, over the past year the local council have been doing a lot of work in the woods and much to my sadness they’ve been cutting down large sections of trees. My perfect hidden dancing spot disappeared with one of their larger tree removals.

However, I have recently discovered a new nook and this morning after a 3 mile run and a long stretch over the back of a tucked away bench, I walked home along this hidden path and in an open nook, danced my heart out to Florence. There is something exhilarating about dancing alone to your own rhythm.

Snow

From Friday night until we went to bed late on Sunday, we were pretty much constantly being sprinkled with snow flakes. It would come down heavy for awhile, stick and a few hours later dissipate from the sidewalks and road and then start all over again.

After Saturday night everything had iced over and then it snowed on top of the ice, so it was hard to tell where you could walk and where you would start ice skating, when we headed out for a run on Sunday. After ice skating for a bit down the road, we decided to head to the coffee shop to warm up with hot chocolates. I made fast friends with a little furry girl, whose coat was so tight and curly, it was like running your fingers through an ebony shag rug. Her name was Roxy and I got lots of kisses.

It was 15°F when we got up yesterday morning and the ice was still pretty thick in places, so there was no run for me. I hate not being able to get out there, but it is better to take a day off, then six weeks off, because I’ve ended up in a cast with a broken limb.

I headed out early this morning and the air was so cold and clean. The ice had mainly melted, but you could still see it here and there in places. However, I did skate over the train tracks footbridge, as it had remained a solid sheet of ice. Snow still speckled the earth. Thicker in some places than in others.

I love how the snow changes the landscape. Things become more pronounced or softly hidden under a blanket of white. As I made my way to the woods this morning, I only passed one other person, it was so quiet. The birds were singing and I watched a magpie couple slowly build a nest. He flew back and forth carrying small sticks in his beak while she flittered about and helped.

Now, I’m home, defrosting with a cup of tea. The sky is pearly grey. I’ve got buttermilk rolls rising on the counter for dinner tonight and I had just enough buttermilk left over to make another loaf of my Nana’s Irish Soda Bread. Happiness is…

A Woodland Offering

December is almost here. I’m elated to decorate our little cottage for the holidays, but at the same time, I feel that it is all happening so fast. I just want to slow down and enjoy the season we are coming in to. A large majority of stores have had their Christmas decorations out since the first of November. And although this is one of my favourite times of year, I want to savour it and not have it go by in a swirling rainbow blur.

I worked on taking all of our fall decorations down yesterday in preparation for Christmas decorating. I always bring our leftover pumpkins and gourds to the woods. This morning I headed into the woods on my run, which was really more of a swift walk at that point, because my pockets and hands were laden down with mini pumpkins.

I slowly moved off the path, after picking a good spot and nestled a few of them on a moss covered tree stump. I’ll keep my eye on them as I cut through the woods in the morning on my next couple of runs to see who has been feasting on them. Usually they are gobbled up by the muntjacs, squirrels and birds.

After leaving my little offering to the woods, I made my way back on to the main path, but not before a muntjac crossed in front of me a little ways further up. Maybe she was watching me? I hope she headed that way after I cleared out, she would have had quite a feast this morning if she did.

Leaf Snow

It was overcast when I headed out for my run this morning. The clouds were low and the way they wove into one another made me think of snow clouds. As I made my way onto the woodland trails, I started to see glimmers here and there of the sun trying to peek out.

When I came out onto the main path, the sun suddenly burst through the clouds. The wind picked up and forced the tree branches to sway and so many leaves that had been holding on with all their might, started to fall. Some came down quickly, some spun around and around in a dizzying circle and some slowly drifted. It was like leaf snow the way they all floated down and came to rest on the ground around me and it made me smile.

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Quiet

I’m longing for quiet lately. I was shopping for a birthday card for a friend last week and found the perfect card for my Nana. It was dirty, which she would have loved. She had a wicked sense of humour. I wandered around the store and was about to purchase my items when I realised, I can’t send her a card. I just stood there like an idiot for a moment before going to put the card back. I still can’t believe that she no longer exists within my world. We shared a lot with each other, but I still had so much more to learn and to experience through her eyes.

On my daily run, I always make a beeline for the woodland paths. I slow down to a walk there and watch the muntjacs (if I’m lucky to see them), or check on the baby coots and ducklings in the pond. One little muntjac in particular and I are slowly becoming friends. He occasionally watches me do yoga or peers out from the trees across the path, when I’m doing push-ups using the back of a park bench. He seems to seek me out. I find peace in watching him. I find peace in listening to the birds and watching the sun shine through the fern leaves. One of the many side paths has ferns that are taller than me. When the sun shines through them it is like being in a chapel made entirely of emerald green stained glass.

The moment I leave the woods the traffic rushes by, people push past you and there is just so much noise coming from every direction. I don’t want noise for a little while. I want to sit in a chair with my toes in the sand. I want to do my morning run along the beach, barefoot as the sun rises. I want to collect seashells, rinsing them off in the ocean before leaving them to dry on the porch railing. I want to make s’mores over a fire and slowly lick off the marshmallow goo from my lips.

I want to eat when I feel like eating, only see people if I want to, only talk to people if I want to. I want to take naps on a screened-in porch listening to the waves as I drift off. I don’t want to answer questions, or do laundry, or clean a house. I don’t want to hear noise other than the ocean beating against the shore one rolling wave at a time. Just for a little while, I just crave the delicious sound of silence.

{Image found HERE // Pinned HERE}

A Sunshine Filled Monday

Monday mornings come around all to quickly for me. But this has been a peaceful Monday so far. We grabbed a cup of coffee this morning and chit-chatted before Mr. Michie got the bus and I did my run. I kept stopping to look at things. There are daffodils everywhere now. In clumps of golden egg yolk hues and buttercup yellow. The sun was shining and the air was cool and so fresh. The birds were singing in the woods. I watched two little coal tits gathering fluff and twigs to build a nest. The woodpecker was busy finding bugs in a dead tree by the pond and the ducks were waddling around in groups.

I finished my run and went to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner. The dryer is whirring away as I get caught up on laundry after the weekend. There is a fresh breeze blowing in through the curtains and I’ve been listening to beach music this morning. Barbara Lewis is shoo-bopping while I type. With all this sunshine and my beach music playing, all I want to do today is a get a hot dog from Jack’s Cosmic Dogs and go dip my toes in the sand. A girl can dream can’t she? Here’s to the sunshine, because it fills my heart with light!

A Frosty Walk

The frost laid so thickly on the ground in places this morning, it looked like snow. It was still dark when I set out and the fog had the world shrouded in secret. I felt almost as if I had crossed over into another world, a fairyland. The pond has been frozen solid for over three days and on my walk yesterday, I watched a man venture out on it, laughing as he stood there while his wife took his picture.

The woods were quiet today. I only passed one other person. The fog began to lift in places and the sky gradually turned a pearlescent pinky peach. I watched a muntjac slowly come out from under the branches and make his way across the path in front of me. Only to be swallowed up again by the brush on the other side.

I saw a fox this morning. He was trotting along the footpath and we stopped to watch each other for a few moments before he ran down a side path and carried on deeper into the woods. I spied a great tawny owl sailing through the trees and majestically land on a barren branch, his body blending in perfectly with the bark.

It was a magical walk indeed and a wonderful way to start the week.

First Walk

The temperature dropped so low last night, that we awoke this morning to a fairyland encrusted in sugar. It has been too wet to run through the woods the past few days, but with the world hard with frost underneath my feet, I took my first walk into the woods in this new year.

It was beautiful! The air was so cold and fresh, the light was so purely white. The ducks were skating across the pond. The robins were singing and swooping from branch to branch. Pure magic.

Spinning

I am not a fan of spiders, I’ll admit. I like when we keep a nice distance between ourselves. But, I cannot deny that they create beautiful work. Spun as delicately as lace. And the strength in that interconnected filigree of thread is incredible to behold.

On my walk this morning, dew hung heavy from every surface imaginable and I spotted spider web after spider web that were bejewelled with dew. When the murky morning light hit them, it was almost as if they were studded with diamonds.

Good Morning

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It was starting to rain as I headed out this morning for my walk. It was still dark and overcast. Along my way I was greeted by my favourite black lab. A very lovely old gal. Her person always lets go of the leash as soon as she sees me, as my furry friend likes to run to greet me and cover me with kisses.

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I hit the woods as the sun was starting to rise. The rain and clouds seemed to disappear as if by magic. It was beautiful. There seemed to be mushrooms everywhere on my walk this morning and all the spiderwebs were glistening with rain drops in the morning sun. The wind was making them dance and sprinkle the droplets on the ground below.

I had the woods entirely to myself, I never passed a soul. It was pure bliss.

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