Down a Country Lane

Today my son offered to take me on a walk down a country lane not far from his house. These woods are on the edge of a housing development in the suburbs. It pleases me to discover nature hidden away close by.


The rain has ended and the skies cleared to this crisp, clean blue that made me want to inhale deeply. And hey, there actually is a country lane just on the other side of the stop light




The road leads through small farms, fenced into neat rectangles. Some fences were white, tidy structures while others were barely standing.






These little guys seemed eager to have some company and came trotting over to us. Maybe they are used to getting a handout.

I say 'little guys' because they were, literally. Here they are with my son, to give a little perspective.

In the pasture with those two horses and several more was this little odd-ball. No, he's not an overgrown rodent, he's a little pot-bellied pig.

Now for a contrast in beauty. Nothing melts my heart the way a single rose in bloom like this one does. What a show-off!

And coming over the hill and seeing this whitewashed fence with the roses trailing over it and more horses grazing in the green field was like a poster for serenity.

I'm not sure I can identify the raptor here (help me out bird-friends), but she was soaring and gave me the perfect snapshot for the blue-sky high of a morning walk after the rain.

And here we are, back at the woods we started from.

Little boy memories took over my son at this point and the woods coaxed him over to see if there were any tree houses or hide outs that had been played in over the summer. I'm not sure what he found but he was smiling.

This walk was the highlight of my day. Who knows what else is hidden in the city?

And tomorrow is a new day.