Massive Photo Bombardment Alert!!!
I'm Home!
Welllll, technically I've been home since the weekend. I was simply residing in a different, more primitive location on my property ever since Monday. The idea was to clear my head by having "alone time". That doesn't always work out well when I'm still accessible to those that are crowding me in the first place. Didn't work out well this time either. I had visits for advice from my future daughter in law three times. That's okay. All in all, my camping experience was very cathartic.
Living out of a tent in the woods feeds my soul by allowing me to get outside of myself and in tune with the forest. Granted, most folks don't go camping in March, but that's never been a deal-breaker for me. I will say that it's a battle trying to force myself out of my bedroll when the temperature is in the low thirties, especially when my morning coffee has to be perked over a fire that hasn't even been made yet. When was the last time you made a pot of coffee over a fire in one of these?:
The weather was beautiful during the days. The first morning, I was wrestling with an uncooperative atomizer when I heard a soft
"whoomp, whoomp, whoomp" approaching. I looked up to see a bald eagle fly down the creek right in front of me. My jaw dropped and I sat stunned and smiling.
This is why I come out here. I also enjoyed watching a Cooper's hawk performing acrobatics in the sky above me in an effort to impress a prospective mate. And then there was a wood duck drake escorting his lady love to several possible nesting sites. They were house hunting. It's sooo odd to see ducks in trees!
Male and female wood ducks. Female is barely visible on the left.
Male wood duck
I was also kept company by a green shield bug (a stinkbug) that I named Otis. He was on the picnic table that my late husband built years ago - poised on a corner. For over an hour, he would open his wings to fly elsewhere .... and then chicken out. He finally took the plunge, but I missed the shot.
There is a pair of Canada geese that nest along my creek every year. They waddled along the shallows taking turns feeding while the other kept an eye on me.
More to follow ...
