It felt cool this morning and that was a gift.  The ground and plants were still wet.  It had rained last night.  There had been too many hot days and before I know it they will be gone.  Summer is winding down:  soon Labor day will be here and the kids will be back to school.  Today I will enjoy the weather exactly how it is and when it changes again I will not dismay.  Every day is perfect and the greatest gift is today.  Somehow this year I missed picking the wild blackberries but there is a frozen pie to remind us of all the raspberries I picked.  Every season has its own gift.

It must be the height of the wild raspberry season.  I just picked another bowlful.  I won’t pick any more.  I will let other creatures (and others) pick the remainder.  Lynelle all ready baked two pies–one we froze.  They are a real treat and the bushes are walking distance.  Maybe my other will bake another pie and we will give this one away.  The season is so short.  The wild blackberry season is next–a few more weeks.  During one season near the end I discovered a patch deep in the woods hard to get to.  There are so many briars.  I will have all the blackberries I want if I fight my way through all the thorns.  Something else to look forward to–my wife’s blackberry pies.  Another treat.  Soon to come.

Every time I glance out my kitchen window onto the backyard and woods I am awed.  There is mystery there. Toads, turtles and cottontails live back there.  And I do not know what else.

Today everything is white and there is calm.  The snow is falling.  If I look carefully, I often see birds alight on some of the bushes.  It is wild back there.

Two summers ago I discovered a large raspberry patch in the corner of my property.  My wife made at least two pies from the berries I picked that year.

I love looking at the symmetry of the trees, how they placed themselves.  I know there is a higher power.  And every time I look at (???) that window I am assured of that fact.

There is a tiny creek back there which sometimes goes dry but the gully it created is at least six inches tall so it has been there for awhile.

Every once in a while I tramp around never certain what I will find.  I love surprises although they generally occur when I am not looking for them.  It is a piece of our property I love. I never know exactly what I will find.

It is wild and I want to keep it that way.  I hate manicured lawns.  I do not know why people are so proud of them.  And work so hard to keep them that way.  To me, it is an exercise in futility. I certainly don’t envy their neat lawns. I just love looking out my window.

The grass is not greener elsewhere.  It is so tempting to believe that but it is not.  Sometimes paradise is right in front of you.  This year I discovered a large raspberry patch within an hundred yards on the street I live on the edge of some woods.

This was to be the second year I was going to pick raspberries in a patch I discovered last year on my property.  And then I discovered this patch.  I did not know who the owners were.  The berries were wild.  I picked enough at the new patch for at least two pies.

It amazed me I never noticed that patch before.  It was ten feet in from the road and I happened to notice it when my dog was sniffing around there.  What else am I missing right under my feet?

I was going home from church and took the long way because the land was wilder and I never knew what wildlife I would see from this road.

I was not disappointed this time:  I flushed a dozen wild turkey hens.  I do see wild turkey around here but I had never seen so many at one time.  I was thrilled to say the least.

I never know for sure what discovery I will make next time.  We have thousands of books between us and there is an universe in each of them so I have no need to travel too far to explore the next universes.

And that does not even include universe after universe in my music– thousands of LP’s, cassettes and CD’s.

I never run out of things to explore.  I do not have to go to far but don’t get me wrong I do enjoy traveling once in a while.  I just don’t feel I have to.

I made several discoveries the last two weeks.  I accidentally discovered a large patch of wild raspberries on a large tract of land adjacent to our property.  My dog was sniffing around and I turned my head and there it was in plain view from the road.

I was not the only person picking berries there but I did not feel too guilty picking raspberries there.  It was not on my land but the neighbor opposite the patch did not own the land.  There was evidence there was someone else picking berries.  There were plenty to go around.

The patch was less than an hundred yards away.  I never noticed it before.  Last year I came across a large patch of raspberries on my property.  I had lived there for four years and did not notice or know it was there:  it was in the far right corner of my property–an area I usually do not frequent.

My wife had made already two raspberry pies.  I was taking them for granted.  If she makes another this time we will freeze it so we can eat it long after the raspberry season is over and maybe appreciate it more.

Today I spotted a large five inch box turtle sunning himself on the concrete in back of our house.  I left it alone.  I usually see one or two a year.  I wondered how old this turtle was.  I had no idea but I imagine it saw a few summers:  it was at least five inches long.

The discovery of the turtle made my day.  I kept checking on it and was hoping I could show it to my wife when she got up.  It was just another discovery that made life interesting.

Why I Like The Wild

Author: siggy

I was looking out my back door window and just thinking.  A large section of our front yard no longer has grass and for a short time my wife was considering laying down sod.  I really do not care.  I always felt American’s obsession with having a large neatly manicured lawn was and is an exercise in futility.  I want a garden not a lawn.  In fact, a landscaper is going to help us with developing that.2frogs

The back yard is another story:  most of it is wild.  Toads appear at our doorstep every year–all sizes from tiny to humongous.  They are attracted to the bugs that come to the porch light.

turtle2bThere is a small creek in the back–most of the time just a trickle. You never know when a box turtle will appear.  We also saw wonderfully orange colored salamanders at least twice.  Rabbits play in the undergrowth.

I do not want to cultivate this area.  I love not knowing what I will see next, what unusual bird or whatever comes my way.

I love the wild.  It gives me a sense of the mysterious, the unknown, a feeling I love.  That is why I won’t cultivate the back of our property.

Last year after living here for over four years, to my delight and amazement I discovered a large patch of wild raspberries on the far corner of my property.  And I love raspberries.  I even picked enough berries for two pies.

turtleI do not know exactly what lives there but I am always expectant when I peer out my kitchen window wondering what will come along next.  It is out of my control.  That is the way I want it.  This is one plot of land that will grow wild.  I rejoice in it.

cardinalI get so absorbed in the beginning of the day I simply do not notice the birds coming to my feeders.  In the first few hours I am waking up.  I really do not know what happens to me the first hours of the morning.

I am very focused in the beginning and can’t relax.  I make my daily trip to the post office, spray their fern, check my box.  There are always the pets I have to take care of:  we have a menagerie–eight cats and four dogs.  The dogs are always eager to go out and do their thing in the yard and they are none too shy about telling me.

At some point, my concentration switches.  I have done the most pressing tasks and can relax a bit.

I did notice some others things earlier:  I forgot that in the middle of the woods someone once planted a clump of daffodils.  I noticed that they were white and also a larger variety unlike the others in our yard.

raspberriesI also noted that the blackberry and raspberry bushes had new growth (I can not tell them apart this time of the year).  I was thrilled to notice that.  In June and July I will be picking raspberries and blackberries respectively.  I can’t wait.  The only downside, I attract ticks picking berries and they gross me out when I discover one on me.  I just want to get rid of them as quickly as possible.  My wife always wants to gently release them in our yard.

I still remember once tick3 last summer discovering seven ticks tick3 tick3 on me after one tick3 berry picking expedition and frantically shook them off of me.  tick3tick3tick3This year I plan to put repellent on me and expose as little skin as I can when I pick the berries.

My wife made several pies last year and I can’t wait to taste another one.  I absolutely love blackberry and raspberry pies.  raspberrypie3 Last year at the end of the season I accidentally discovered a gigantic patch of blackberries I did not know was there.  I was trying to reach some berries and had gone further into the woods than I had ever gone and there it was.  I will have to fight my way through a wall of briers but I will have more blackberries than I can ever pick.  This time I will freeze some and give away more pies.  Of course my wife will have to bake them.

To get back to the birds, who I do not see right away when I get up, sometimes I am not really here and I am in some different place and at some different time.  It might take a few hours to settle down in the present and do nothing for awhile.  Then I will notice the birds who come in a steady stream all day.  I just have to slow down.  And do nothing.  For awhile.