Looks like the squirrel got the green cord, a gift that I left for him on a stump near his tree, three years ago.
I mention to DF in jest how I surmise that I didn’t give the obstinate little fellow enough to hang himself with. I get a chuckle. He was a poor neighbor, but plenty of entertainment, who taught us about his kind. The old aspen next to the stump has fallen and now is leaning against his tree. It functions like a super highway up to his place up high.
We recognized his familiar chatter as we awoke in the morning.
There’s a big tire track where our tent had been in 2023. Somebody had since been here, but left. The wood pile is the same as we left it, they probably didn’t camp. But there is a fire restriction.
DF breaks out her sketches from our last visit in her book. The aspen that she had been practicing drawing, has had the marks scraped away.
We find elk tracks and old scat lying in a perfect proximity.
There is evidence of animals spending time here. The results of other destructive behaviors are around us.
The twin pines meditation spot is still there for DF to commune with. She loves to talk to them and practice her Chi Gung. It is her appropriation of private solitude, attraction to a sacred space.
We try out the local branch to see how healthy our upper body is.
The lilac garden is coming up again, still young. There’s a new set of the twin yellow butterflies fluttering around us. I remember feeling the light patter of their ancestor’s wings fanning my bare body.
The forest road seems yet more impassible, very rough from erosion.
Guess who’s coming to brunch. DF sets upon a sort of three course breakfast. First a smoothie (banana collagen, greens in powder, chia and coconut powder) then a hash browns, then egg follow up. As I sit in my folding chair, I notice a female elk has come lumbering down the driveway! We’re down wind. The large creature is focused on its own business. She seems undisturbed by the big still red SUV sitting covered with red dust.
The huge snoot gobbles up a young aspen, and proceeds. My mouth is probably as wide as hers in stunned amazement. When I stand, she stops again. I’m noticed. The strangers are home and she has found herself standing in the middle of their camp.
It reminds me of a time that I found my camping business had taken me right into a group’s camp meeting. There I stood nude, feeling a need to leave. By the looks I got, they had me judged as out of place, but I just continued. I could comprehend that. but I was supposed to be there wearing nothing. I wonder if she has similar feelings, as she bounces off a couple of hundred feet into the forest in her reaction.
This is the closest that I have come to an elk. I’m usually at a distance, or looking at their backend.
Our morning is casual, relaxed, just resting and enjoying our sense of getting home. It’s all off the cuff.
This afternoon, we’ve decided to go for a nice long walk, somewhere….
(I’ll post that story in a couple of days.)
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
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