A Walk in the Woods

I know, I stole my post title from a book by Bill Bryson. If you haven't read it, this book is all about 2 college friends who hike the Appalachian Trail many many years after they've graduated from college. (The Appalachian Trail runs almost the entire east coast of the US, through the Appalachian mountains from Maine to Georgia.)  Bill Bryson  is a very funny writer, and  the story isn't really a technical hiking book. In fact, Bill Bryson is a walker more than a hiker. Anyhow, I saw it is coming out as a movie next month, which can't be even close to as good as the book is, but I still want to see it. If you haven't read any Bill Bryson, I recommend him. I'd start with A Walk in the Woods or In a Sunburned Country which is about a visit he made to Australia.

So today I thought I would show you a few photos from my street where I live.  I've been walking the dogs (mine and my daughter's since she has moved back home) down here in the mornings, and it is a relatively peaceful walk. Usually there's not a lot of traffic. I don't know why I've started to walk this way lately; I've often gone in the other direction where there are more houses and more traffic.

Maybe because it is summer and warm and it is so relaxing to take a walk down a gravel road through the woods.

You can see in the top photo my daughter who walks with me on the weekends.

Here's a sugar shack. This is where they boil down the maple tree sap to make maple sugar in the spring, typically March. It is part of the farm that owns this land. They always have up cans on the maple trees to collect the sap.

 And I have to show you the pups.  If I had a wheeled cart they could pull me.

 I am hoping a lot of this land doesn't get developed in the future, but some of it is a protected town forest. We have lots of animals living here, including deer, moose, bobcats and black bear. I haven't seen a bear since last summer (and luckily they come out at night when I am not walking) and I haven't seen a moose for a few years. But I see deer and wild turkeys all the time. This year there have been so many flocks of turkeys with babies.

 I spied this giant bee nest behind the sign. It was buzzing like crazy, so I kept the dogs away and didn't get too close.  That's all I'd need is for one of them to get a bee angry and have the whole hive chasing us down the road.

 Right now the wildflowers are looks beautiful. The wild side of the road almost looks like a garden.

 And there's lots of cool light through the trees.

So that is all for me today. I am off taking an art class for the day, and have to head out early to make sure I get a good seat. I'll show you my painted creations soon. Hope you enjoyed your walk in the woods.