Walk with me……

Walk with me……

today’s post is another one of these babies……

Take a nature walk and connect with the sights, scents and sounds that surround you. Reflect on these senses and how they affect your mood.

So I did it…I took a walk….in nature…and out of my yard where you see a lot of our little bit of nature most of the time anyway. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, you saw all of the pictures I didn’t take with the good camera on April 9th.  I didn’t really have time for a walk because I was still finishing up taxes and working on the first of many Quilt Market quilts.  But I did anyway….mainly to escape working on taxes 🙂 …..but also just for some fresh air and some solitude.  And that was Wednesday. Here it is Saturday night and I am just getting to writing about it.  A lot of sewing and DayJob  in between……

Just to let you know. I loved that walk! I very seldom walk alone, and in fact Linda and I walked that same path the day after just the two of us. Which also hasn’t happened for quite some time.  Both walks were delightful.

The walk alone was for this post as I was more focused on the world around me as I went. I can’t really attest much to the smells from the walk; I don’t have a very good sense of smell. Things have to be pretty strong for me to smell them at all. And I took a TON of photos…I also very seldom walk with the camera so this really doesn’t happen much. I even took a few notes on the sounds. When I left the house there were a few birds singing (much fewer than earlier that morning) and a lawnmower somewhere….as I walked closer to the park the lawnmower grew fainter.

When I got into the park a little way the “human” sounds started to disappear and the frog-song in the bog/pond grew louder with each step.

On the other side of the bog/pond was the darkest part of the woods.  I found out later there had been bear sitings in here!

Then the path moved onto the river which was very full and rushing along swiftly, but relatively peacefully after the frogs.

I had discovered the work they had been doing in this park over the last year.  They added a “riverlet” to the middle of it. I learned later that this had something to do with recreating some natural salmon runs that had been damaged in the past.  Much of the park felt much lighter and airier to me in this section.

Then I walked into the last half of the path which hadn’t been changed too much back into the lighter deciduous portion of the forest and heard more birds singing….including my favorite red-winged blackbird……and I could see the colors of spring coming back!

I could smell a little more of the musty woody smell of rotting trees and composting leaves at different times through this walk …..

and a lot of visual texture!!

and then home back to more residential noises (even though I live on three+ acres)  including some rap music….and more lawn-mowing (I found myself wondering Was this the SAME lawnmower??)

Oh, and how did this little walk affect my mood? Well, I came back pretty darn chilled and relaxed…even though I had to get back to those nasty taxes and all…..  🙂

Thanks for coming along on my little Pacific Northwest Forest stroll.  Hope you feel as refreshed as I did after my little journey!