Waking Up

 The forest is waking.. yawning and stretching from the winter sleep.  I love the patchwork quilt of
almost spring... snow and earth in patterns beautiful.   It is not spring yet, but the forest is coming alive.
The edges of snow recede every day, revealing life underneath.

On newly thawed ground, the voles race just under the surface, making little raised hills that somehow look like handwriting. Yesterday I saw one in a perfect capital E.  

The forest is wild and beautiful and rugged here, a mix of Ponderosa Pine, Aspen, Spruce, Gambol Oak,

and sometimes Douglas Fir.  I can step out my door and be in the forest within 15 minutes.  I have come to think of these trails as "mine", though in reality, we belong to the earth, and not the other way around. The Grand Design of the natural world is full of wisdom.  I try to listen, and watch, and learn.

 When  you see just the tip ends of pine branches

lying on the ground like this, it is the work of squirrels, who find

 these end buds a welcome treat near winter's end.  I have wondered if it tastes sweet to them, like honeysuckle does to us.

I don't know how long we will live here, in this wild place, and so I want to capture it, as much for myself as anyone else.  And, just now, as the harsh days of winter are becoming a memory, and everyone is anticipating and longing for the arrival of spring, well, it seemed like a good place to start.  If I make it through the whole year, then, spring is a good place to end, too.