Forest Bathing

I don't know about you, but I love this spa-like term for 'hanging around trees'. This is something I do as often as possible, even if it's winter and I'm stuck looking out at the bare ones in the back yard. The rest of the year, though, I'm walking distance from a ravine park with loads of natural world features in it.

The route I take requires - such a hardship! - walking past houses with nice gardens, like this pollinator one:

Or this pretty border variety:

And then it's down through a leafy bower.

The path under these trees isn't *too* steep... coming down. We won't discuss what it's like coming back up, ahem, but it's the reason I don't do this trip three times a day.

On this particular outing, we were having a break from a whole lotta rain. On my way into the ravine the skies were still very stormy-looking, which I love:

It made the air in the soggy leafy ravine smell *amazing*... I so wish I could package that up for you here, along with the pictures. But I can show you what the creeks running through the ravine looked like. Busy!

Maybe not this side of a bridge, so much - all you can see is the churned-up colour, and maybe that the water level is sitting higher than normal:

But on this side? It was noisy. I uploaded larger format pictures this week so you can click on them and see more detail.

I always wonder what magic is happening under a bridge to produce such a change. Trolls? Probably trolls.

It's too hot to knit again this week, so I'm working on another writing project I started last fall and got to a full draft before wandering off to greener pastures. It's important to take a break from a manuscript like that, so you come back with fresh eyes and ideas, but I am definitely making a note to self - six months is too long! I'm so fresh I'm practically a blank slate.

However, it's lovely on the porch again, with a tiny breeze and a lot of squirrels hustling around while we humans laze. I'm going to enjoy it all while I can.

Hope you have some lovely moments lined up in your weekend! Maybe even something with trees. Thanks as always for spending this time with me, and I hope to see you next Saturday.