5June07 - 52Wedding Anniversary

The first day in a week without rain. Perfect day for a walk in the woods. This, despite the forecast for a continuation of yesterday's non-stop, often heavy rain. Nature offering her compassionate side, bestowing upon us a mostly sunny, breezily-cool day. No need to bundle ourselves into fleece and raingear on this day, our 52nd wedding anniversary.

We set off on the day's outing, still anticipating surprise precipitation events, but the sky was clear of thunderheads. The Mad River, swollen from a week of relentless rainstorms, sent its run-off crashing over the boulder-strewn length alongside our route. The spires of the Tripyramid Mountains rise in the near distance, mist lifting above and below, as the sun bakes the drenched landscape.

We heave ourselves up the steep trailhead at Smarts Brook, doing the circuit again in reverse. The forest detritus of generations has absorbed the rainfall handily, its moist cushion cradling our boots as we ascend. Rocks glisten back the moisture, the still humidity; roots dark and ubiquitous on the trail. A subtle hint of movement at the trailside, an accumulated leaf compost draws the eye toward a garter snake, its body sinuously resting on the debris, absorbing rays of the sun.

Remarkably, though we stand together observing the little green-patterned serpent, Button and Riley, ever alert to the presence of other life forms, remain oblivious to the presence of the snake. Which is all right with us. We wouldn't look forward to the potential of their curiosity resulting in the snake's fright and flight.

Luxurious hemlock seedlings, their tender bright new tips unfurled crowd the edges of the forest. So too, the resurgence of growth on tiny pine, spruce, fir and maple saplings. These must be black, not copper beech in this forest, trunks encrusted with many years' worth of lichens. Lilies-of-the-valley abound in a richness of presence, stippled here and there with pendulous pink orchid heads.

The Ladies slippers, some bright, all attention-arresting in their grace and beauty. Pale pink, bright pink, some verging on ivory, catching the sun, luminescent. Swallowtails lazily lift their curvaceous yellow wings in pairs, casually arabesquing the landscape. There! Button has sniffed a patch of grass and from the plants nearby an interrupted orgy of egg-laying as a mass of Swallowtails rise on the still air.

The trail approaches, then diverges from the mountain stream. Its busy surge down mountainsides at first faint, then thundering as we approach, as spume and spray smash over rocks and boulders. Large pools swell under the granite outcroppings where the furious waters fall. One weather-fierce waterfall after another, diluting the excess above, running down the mountains.

Button races ahead, her curiosity and energy belying her age, roughly analogous to ours. Riley stumps sturdily, stubbornly well behind, stopping now and again to nibble on fresh new grasses. His stubby little legs take a lot more pumping to move him expeditiously along, unlike Button's long graceful lope, despite that she's twice his age. Bright, sun-kissed flowers of blue-eyed grass rises nearby.

When we reach the pine flats coming off the Yellowjacket trail, we note the regeneration as we proceed. Buttercups abound among the growing thickets of hemlock and spruce. There are Ladies slippers, dandelions, moose maple, pines, spruce, birch, beech, with wood sorrel sprinkled beside their tender trunks. As we approach the stream again it roars and froths down the mountainside, flashing out the rain-soaked slopes.

The roar is insistent, everpresent, underlined by a broad shooshing as water catapults over immense boulders, onto the smooth grey bedrock of the Granite State. What better way to celebrate, for we two grey-caps. Fifty two sunny years together, discovering life and celebrating our duet of future years.

Back in the car, on our way to another, this time indoor destination, the sky fills with ominous thunderheads. We thrill to clap after clap of thunder, watch as a bright crooked rod of electrical magic divides the sky.