notes from the TajMelhal~

I'm sitting down in the woods in my comfy hunting shack, patiently waiting on that big horn buck. So far, the only animal life showing itself is a big gray squirrel and a chatty red squirrel.

I'm guessing it to be around 9:00.  As usual, here I sit once again with no watch.  I've never been one who wears wrist watches.  Well, let me rephrase that - I shouldn't say never.  I use to wear them, but after my rounds with carpal tunnel and now fibromyalgia ~ I can't stand wearing one.  Maybe if I had a super loose one it wouldn't bother me, but I'm fat and it's hard to find anything to wear super loose - even a watch.  I'm thinking the same thing I thought last year at this time ~ I need a pocket watch.

Sitting and waiting sure gives a person time to think and to reflect.  My thoughts keep going to my Dad, who has passed away.  He is the one who has instilled me such a love for nature and animals and seeing the beauty and marvels that are all around us.  All we have to do in open our eyes and minds and see. Nature fascinates me.  No matter where I go I want to know what it is I'm looking at. 

I don't just see a tree.  I see a balsam fir, with little pockets of pitch under it's fine membrane of bark.  I notice on that balsam tree the branches grow in whorls. 

~ image from the internet ~

It's needles are flat and protrude from it's stems on the sides, unlike it's cousin the spruce tree, where the needles circumference the whole branch.

BALSAM ~ image from the internet ~

SPRUCE ~ image from the internet ~

The balsam needles are soft and pleasantly fragrant, not hard and pokey and skunky smelling like the spruce.  Lichens and moss grow on the trees.  The forest floor is a wonderland, as is a person's lawn or a park or a ditch alongside the road.  No matter where you are, randomly pick a spot - anywhere ... and really LOOK at it.  How many hundreds of things do you see?  What kind of shapes, colors, smells.  God created a beautiful world ~ it's up to us how we perceive it.

RUFFED GROUSE ~ image from the internet ~

The prettiest ruffed grouse, aka. partridge just showed up.  It has so much white on it ... BEAUTIFUL.  He ate a few kernels of corn, walked around a bit, went up on a stump, more strutting around and here comes this nasty little woodrat , aka. gray squirrel and he has to go and chase it away.  Boy those squirrels are greedy little buggers. 
~~
Well... I sat until shooting hours were over ... no groceries this time around.  I have until Sunday to get some venison on the meat pole.  Wish me luck tomorrow with the harvest.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel