Our Own Wilderness

We took Angel Eyes on her first tent camping adventure this week. We all had a wonderful time, but to be honest I am extremely sore! Keeping up with a youngster in a creek full of slippery rocks can be daunting when you are out of shape! She could scoot up and down the creek so quickly, and I tried my best to keep up which lead to around a dozen falls by this ol' girl. I feel like someone beat me up.

The fun did outweigh the pain for the most part. We got to teach her how to skip rocks, and we played all sorts of imaginary games in the water. We pretended the leaves floating down the stream were fairy boats, we named different dragonflies by their colors and particularly enjoyed visits Ruby and Sapphire made, landing on us and drinking the water from our skin (at least I'm guessing that's what they were doing.) Angel eyes pretended that she was a mermaid which she laughingly calls a murder-maid, because that is how her little sister pronounces it, a water scientist, a cowgirl, and a rock skipping champion. Needless to say her imagination does not suffer from lack of exercise.

She kept saying, "This is like having our own private wilderness or jungle."

We took a few walks and looked at some of the plants and stuff that aren't as familiar where we live, or maybe we just don't take the time to notice them when we are at home.

She saw Queen Anne's lace for the first time, and we stopped to examine different mushrooms and flowers. We saw cattails which I know grow here, but she had never really seen them before. The first morning we went for a stroll a

nd happened up on a black snake right off the bat. I must admit it put a damper on our little adventure. I know a fear of snakes which aren't venomous may not be rational, but it is a fear I possess, and I stepped mighty gingerly after that encounter.

We took a drive up into the national forrest one day, and saw twelve wild turkey, and four rattlesnakes. I could have done without the rattlesnakes for sure! My husband kept talking about how beautiful they were, but I really had a hard time seeing that. We saw trees loaded down with apples and crabapples, and a storm cellar along the edge of the road, along with pretty scenic farms. We came back to the campsite, I with visions of rattlesnakes dancing in my head. A.E. and I drew our days out in sketch books, and painted a little with acrylics and watercolors reliving all of the events again in our minds and on our paper.

At night we looked at nature books, read Bible stories, roasted hot dogs we enjoyed the sound of the train whistle, cricket choirs, and whippoorwills. I loved watching the fireflies through the tent window while drifting off to sleep. It reminded me of visits to my grandparents when I was a little girl. We slept soundly until the sun broke through the tent window and woke us up each morning more efficiently than any alarm clock ever could.

It was really a wonderful time. I hope she keeps the memories we made for a very long time. I know I will.