Good to be Back

Nice to be back trekking in our ravine again. We didn't miss it, while we were away. How could we? Too many other viable, interesting, challenging venues to tackle. And we did tackle them. Surprising ourselves in the process. By our ability, despite the physical challenge, to overcome the difficulties before us and to succeed in our determination to do the best we could. But that's another story.

Meanwhile, we re-acquainted ourselves with the ravine. It's really wet in there again. Result of all that rain, the heavy thunderstorms, the accumulation of nearly a week of unrelenting rain. So it's mucky along the trail. Thought we'd see some greater presence of fungi, mushrooms, but no, not yet. Although during yesterday's trek we did see one large white daintily crumpled fungus which I wanted to remember to photograph today, but forgot the camera.

Just as well, since the fungus was gone. Shattered. Smashed into oblivion. By the nature-adoring youngsters who live in the area, no doubt. What kind of mind-set would that be, I ponder to myself, that would view a thing of beauty and react by destroying it? The ravine trails represent a short-cut to many neighbourhood children, one affording them the opportunity to pull down slender saplings, to litter the detritus of their snacks about.

These are the offspring of adults who value things other than the nature that surrounds us. For surely they have never been taught to appreciate the scenery of nature that envelopes us. Schools can do only so much. The immediate environment, the home situation is the place where children absorb their deepest, longest-lasting values. And for these children the place where nature can best be appreciated is at Disneyland.

As for us, we were treated to the lovely pink flowers of fleabane. The pale purple of flowering clover. Buttercups are everywhere now, raising their bright little shiny yellow caps. Daisies are out in full bloom, and the bunchberries still brighten the forest floor. Late-blooming false Solomon's seal is there, too. The blackberries are beginning to blossom, as are the starry-white grasses.

We watched a hairy woodpecker busy on a tree trunk, disinterested in us, busy looking for grubs. Robins ran in quick little bursts of energy along the trail in front of us. All that rain should have gifted them amply with drowning worms, if nothing much else. The cardinal trills high and sweet above us; we catch a fleeting glimpse of the male cardinal flying from the top mast of a spruce. There are glossy starlings about, with their iridescent head feathers, pecking about for digestible offerings in the detritus beside the trail.

Nice to be here again.