What Natureglo is thankful about herself I'm thankful that I still have my youth and vitality with a healthy strong body. I'm thankful that I have a relatively easy going personality and typically ride the waves of life's challenges well. I'm thankful that I stay on top of details of both my personal life and work.
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This week I found another more secluded sit spot. As I've shared, I have not quite been able to feel at home yet in my own backyard. I share space with a small and growing community, and well, there just isn't the privacy I was used to back at Heathcote in my own backyard. But, nevertheless, I still need to hang onto my backyard sit spot for convenience sake.
Last Sunday, I went and found a nice spot at Abram's Creek. The spot includes a new to me, but very old knarled tree that appears to be dead with perhaps a few live shoots growing from it. I can plan to visit my backyard sit spot throughout the week and my new knarled tree spot at Abram's Creek once per week. There are so many great opportunities to connect with nature up here in the mountains. Rochelle and I are really having so much fun here in WV! I haven't gone to my sit spot as much as I probably should but I sure explore other place in nature - mostly Abram's Creek and the Mt. Storm park. It's going to get even harder to visit my sit spot because now a family has moved into the house that I had my sit spot next to. They have two young and curious sons, so I'd have to strike a deal with them to let me alone if I still decide to sit in the spot near the house. I may move my spot more to a nearby field. I'll have to see. Rochelle and I really enjoyed the October snow storm. I got great video footage of her with the snow sticking to her legs, making it look like she had knitted white leggings. She looked so cute! Here's a photo of her below. After the snow, there was a new dimension of this small town to explore, the town in white! At the park, Rochelle and I discovered great beauty in a prickly wildflower called a teasel. You can see what they look like with the nice snow caps. I also found a very small version of cattails. I have been used to seeing corn dog sized cattails back in Maryland. These ones are quite small. Check out the fourth picture below. Lastly, after the snow, one of my favorite discoveries has been finding different types of moss and lichens around Abram's creek. Look at the beauties below.
This week (October 2011..I'm just now posting this month old blog) I visited my sit spot at dusk. What a gorgeous time of day to visit! The sun was setting and peaking through the trees as a bright orange ball, ready for bed in it's bright orange "bathrobe".
I spent most of my sit spot time standing at my sit spot. I still have not yet found a comfortable place that I like to sit. I'll figure it out. I took some pictures but mostly videoed much of my experience. This past weekend, I spend time with Buddy, a real mushroom expert! He taught me more on how to find mushrooms. We found the edible Maitake and the bright orange variety of Chanterelles. It was a lot of fun trying out my student Ursa's game from my Nature Connections class, whom I have had the privilege to teach (rather facilitate) in my on-site nature program and now my on-line Nature Connections class. Ursa is a very talented young lady and many times has come up with what I'd call brilliant and creative project ideas. She's very talented in the arts including writing, painting, drawing....you name! This young lady has talent! Here's one of many of her ideas. What a perfectly gorgeous fall day it was to be outdoors to try a sensory awareness game like this! I actually didn't even plan to try the game. I had gone to the creek for a nice hike with my trusty dog Rochelle when the idea popped into my head to try Ursa's game! I quickly scavenged some objects from nature and made a comfy spot to sit with the items. Sticks, a drying red berry, among other items were part of the small collection. I sat myself down and rolled my little camcorder. Well, I'll let the video tell the rest! Enjoy! On Sunday, Rochelle and I went exploring beyond the campground again. What a lovely fall day! There was not a singe cloud in the sky and the air was of a perfect temperature but for a sweater or light coat. Rochelle and I hiked up farther than usual up the trail and found a great spot to climb down to explore a new part of the creek. We discovered pools, sandbars, and lovely mini waterfalls. The water was high, so we could really see it's power. I took lots of pictures and video footage. Below are some photographs of our adventure.
I also visited my sit spot on a cloudy day but only took some photographs. The leaves are mostly blown off now, and I can see easier into the woods. I can even see the pond now. This past weekend, Rochelle and I went on what's becoming a usual hike in the wilderness beyond Abram's Creek. We found a nice private area beyond the campground in which we had to hike down part of the mountain to get to a beautiful creek pool. It was green at the bottom of the creek bed in some parts of the pool! I took loads of pictures again and Rochelle does such a great job posing for me. I think she loves to get in the eye of my camera or camcorder. I would love to come back there to swim in the warmer weather! It was almost warm enough for me to swim.
This week when I visited my sit spot I met a group of birds including a friendly woodpecker that hopped about a branch near me. I was able to get a video of it hopping about eating bugs. I was amazed to be so close. I walked about my sit spot area and found the two large puffballs...dead and past their season. But now the spores will be dispersed about the yard and more puffballs will emerge perhaps after the next big rain. I have to admit that my sit spot is less than I'd desire it to be, but nevertheless, I am thankful to have a small patch of woods to conveniently connect with nature from home. My most favorite place to connect with nature is at Abrams Creek Campground up the road three miles. If I can't make peace with my current backyard sit spot, I'm seriously considering making my sit spot at Abram's Creek, since I get there on average once per week and that's about how often I can get to my sit spot right now. So, we'll see how things go at home first. It is really best to have a convenient sit spot that's a short easy walk right into one's backyard and that's why I don't want to give up just yet.
Speaking of Abram's Creek, I'm going to add my latest adventure there to this blog. Rochelle and I went twice over the weekend and I took loads of photographs and videos again. It's the one place I can go to around here without fear of stepping on a cranky neighbor's private property. I can go for miles and be in the wilderness. I just love this place and I feel at home away from home! This week I had the opportunity to really take a nice long break from my busy life and get out into nature! This was so very therapeutic as it had been months since I have been able to really unwind and just relax in the great outdoors without feeling like I had to rush off and do something for my business, community or whatever!
Rochelle and I took another very nice long two hour hike through Abram's creek looking for mushrooms. Now, the dog couldn't care less about mushrooms and a number of times (as you'll see from my video) almost stepped on some. But, nevertheless, it was great to have her off her leash romping about getting fresh air and exercise. This time I found some really fun and colorful looking mushrooms. It was slightly cloudy out land the earth was yet moist, so I was able to get some nice photographs of them. Two week's ago, my dog Rochelle and I moved up to the Mountains of West Virginia. I'm now helping to fix up a motel and am managing the current construction as well as will be managing the motel once we're open for business.
One of my challenges when I moved here was to find a backyard sit spot. Now our backyard had previously been a junkyard. But thanks to our wonderful motel clean up crew, the backyard is at least tolerable without most of the junk and garbage. I'm not sure what the previous folks owned this business were thinking to let garbage accumulate around the beautiful green space. There is still lots of clean up to do around the wooded backyard area, but I am able to at least walk around the outskirts of some woods in the backyard. My sit spot is located several yards from our small yellow cottage behind the motel. I've chosen a spot that's has a few rocks for sitting on and a nice lookout into the forest. I'm not sure where property lines are so, I tried hard to stay as close to what I know is our property. I would much prefer being in the woods though. I will have to investigate and ask Michael, the owner of the motel, where our land ends so I can at least walk through the woods if part of it belongs to the motel. It's been raining a lot here lately and I found three giant puffballs which I've included photographs for below. On my first day's sit spot experience, there was a mother white-tailed deer and her fawn watching me. They ran from me at first, but then when I sat still for a while they approached and stood and stared at me for about ten minutes. I took videos of them watching me. I will aim to go to this spot a few times a week and try to fit it in my morning walking routine. |
AuthorI'm Natureglo, founder of Natureglo's eScience! I'm an avid nature lover, photographer, hiker, full time camper and an online teacher. Categories
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