woods in the city

my husband grew up in the country and he remains at heart a country boy. he needs a therapeutic dose of rustic woodsiness now and then the way i need solitude at home. being a city girl, i equate the woods with ticks, chiggers, poisonous spiders, snakes, biting insects and serial killers. i am not altogether at ease in anything resembling a wilderness and i loathe camping. which is not to say i cannot appreciate an expanse of natural beauty. i just don't want to cook, clean and sleep out in it. luckily, we live in a city that is generously sprinkled over with all manner of parklands and yesterday we set out to find a little sun-dappled path thru a likeness of a country woods.

bingo!

complete with babbling brook and placid river amid thick stands of tall trees, blankets of wild flowers, fresh deer and raccoon tracks, fallen timber, rough footpath, bird song and woodpecker-sightings, we found a perfect rural tranquility in the midst of our city. and we were all alone in it.

as we left the footpath and descended into the muddy hollow i kept referring to as a "magical meadow", i watched my husband standing quite still in a patch of sunlight. hands in his pockets, head tipped back to take in the breeze and the sight of new leaves in the treetops, he looked like a boy. a boy at home in the woods.

i guess the risk of snakes and spiders was all worth it.

Comments

[gigi]

this looks like the caldwell woods to me. lovely.