A Walk in the Woods

I've been trying to do the exercise thing by walking in the neighborhood. Today I took a side trip into the woods. My kids grew up here, making forts, golf courses, clubs, trails, camping out and generally enjoyed free time in these woods. They are a small strip of land between the neighborhood and a pipeline with woods and cow pastures beyond. I encountered some of the large holes (3 to 4 feet by about 5 feet wide and 30" deep) that they painstaking labored over, sneaking hoes and pick axes and shovels out of various garages, usually never returning them. I know it was great fun for them and they would come home covered in dirt and sweating mightily. Of course, the parents became alarmed when these creations filled with water after the rains and some effort was made to cover them over again. I guess the kids' vision was stronger than parental worry, because nature has restored the holes.

The fallen trees are still there, just more of them. A faint trace of the bike trails remains. All the dead Christmas trees and lawn cutting piles are still moldering. Just the kids have gone.

I walked down the pipeline and discovered a great deal of wild violets and visited the old shack across the pipeline. It is still standing but ivy is now encroaching enough that I couldn't get near it. Someone has taken to piling dead limbs at the entrance. Probably another adult attempt to keep the kids safe from harm. I remember my own wandering when I was in middle school, living in Alabama. There were fields and woods and blackberry bushes and I went places and never told my mom because I knew she would forbid it if she knew. But that was part of the adventure. Hope you have an adventure today. Live larger!