#tree groundpine

[vandaliatraveler]

Walk with me: a Central Appalachian forest in December. Winter is fast approaching, much to my relief. While some hide away in warm, cozy nooks, my old bones seek forest paths illuminated by sunlit snow, where I am reminded that life persists in the harshest conditions - by birds flitting silently in the underbrush and crisscrossing animal tracks that memorialize, however temporarily, the unending survival chores of the forest community. In the frozen stillness and quiet introspection of the deepest woods on a Winter afternoon, I am renewed by nature's relentless life pulse, beating against all odds, and cherish it even more.

Photos from Scott Run Trail in Coopers Rock State Forest.

[violettesiren]

Ho! for the hills in summer! Ho! for the rocky shade, Where the groundpine trails under the fern-leaves, Deep in the mossy glade. Up in the dewy sunrise, Waked by the robin's trill; Up and away, a-berrying, To the pastures on the hill!

Red lilies blaze out of the thicket; Wild roses blush here and there: There's sweetness in all the breezes, There's health in each breath of air. Hark to the wind in the pine-trees! Hark to the tinkling rill! O, pleasant it is a-berrying In the pastures on the hill!

We'll garland our baskets with blossoms, And sit on the rocks and sing, And tell one another old stories, Till the trees long shadows fling. Then homeward with laughter and carol, Mocking the echoes shrill. O, merry it is a-berrying In the pastures on the hill!

Berrying Song by Lucy Larcom