September 14: Class trip

Yesterday I helped lead a group of seventh graders on a nature hike in the Hodson Preserve in Camden, during which they were to record observations in a journal. What seemed to interest them: plants they could eat and the orderly lines of sap wells made by sapsuckers in birch bark. But mostly, as is natural, they were interested in each other.

 

Kids on a field trip.

I catch their interest

with Indian cucumber.

August 1: North Haven

after-dinner walk

doe with a fawn

crossing our path

Posted with Blogsy

February 8: Harbor Walk

Sun after snowfall.

Other walkers before us

have cleared the path.

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August 26: Night out

Good pizza downtown.

We walk home in the dark

in view of Mars, Saturn.

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July 11: Morning walk up the mountain

walking side-by-side
scent of pine needles in sun
small blue butterfly

June 8: Walking down

Tough conversation.

Focused on lady's slippers,

I count eighty-eight.

 

 

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April 24: Sunday Morning

On our usual walk

escorted by thrushes

up the mountainside.

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April 3: Spring snow

Just as we began this morning's hike up Mount Battie, the snow started to fall and the wind started to howl. We three women and the dog accumulated snow as we walked quickly to keep warm against the wind. Fortunately the inclement weather didn't quiet the season's first sapsuckers and Winter Wren.

Snow falling faster.
Long trilled song of the wren
from somewhere in the woods.

March 12: Skunk cabbage

Skunk cabbages are very interesting plants that generate enough internal heat that they can melt snow in the spring. There's been no snow-melting necessary this spring, so today on our walk we were able to observe the fresh shoots of skunk cabbages raising their mottled heads in the cedar swamp.

 

Skunk cabbages rise.

Walking past we two

generate our own spring heat.

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November 3: Sidewalks

How nicely the fallen leaves
cover the dog shit
on the sidewalks.

November 4: Election Day

We walk to the polls.

In the river, ducks squawk.

No one's feeding them today.

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June 23: Subtle dramas of the evening walk

On our evening walk--

sweet scent of just-mown lawn,

cat toying with prey.

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May 12: After the rain

The rain prevented my mother and I from taking a post-Mother's Day brunch walk this morning, but it stopped in time for my husband and I to get in a pre-dinner walk this evening. As we walked around the neighborhood, each house gave off its own odor: woodsmoke from those trying to take the edge off the evening chill; cigarette smoke from some; the scent of damp crabapple blossoms from others; and the fragrance of mown grass from many.

Wet, scattered petals
and sodden clumps of cut grass.
The calm of settling dusk.

October 20: Long walk

Participated in Rotary's End Polio walk today, about six miles from Lincolnville Beach into downtown Camden. This morning before we started out, torrential rain--but it stopped before we began the walk, so we were just fogged in. As the walkers spread out, the ones up ahead were almost invisible in the mist. Then the fog became more, well, precipitous. It began raining again, though fortunately just a constant drizzle, not like this morning's downpour. And at least it was relatively warm. The constant motion helped too. By the time we finished up, I felt pleasantly invigorated. The rain on my face, the camaraderie of a shared cause, the bright, wet foliage we'd passed by, the tingling in my leg muscles--after being sick for four days, I needed that. 

She should have known
not to wear mascara
for a long walk in the rain.

(Lest anyone get the wrong idea, this is not about myself but a friend I walked with, one of those women who won't appear in public without make-up on and who spent much of the walk wiping it off with her rain-soaked sleeve.)

October 22: Walk

Despite a slight cold that's left me a bit tired and achy the past few days, I eagerly participated in today's four-club Rotary marathon walk for polio. The idea was that each of the four local Rotary clubs--Rockland, Camden, West Bay (also in Camden), and Belfast would each walk a 6.25-mile leg of a route that would start at the two ends, in Rockland and Belfast, and have us meeting in the middle--conveniently located at the Whale's Tooth Pub in Lincolnville Beach. My club, West Bay, began our southbound leg at Northport Marine on Route One, after a hand-off from the Belfast club.

I drive that stretch of Route One all the time, but there's nothing like on-the-ground experience to help you notice things. Like the beautiful views of Ducktrap Mountain and the Camden Hills you get from the tops of several rises in Northport, the colorful slopes periodically lit by sun breaking through the clouds. Or all the narrow driveways that head off toward the water along that stretch. Or the number of cardinals calling from the underbrush, or scenic streams passing under the road. Businesses had popped up that I somehow hadn't yet noticed from my car. You also see first-hand what's underfoot, literally--strewn trash, roadkill, toppled street signs, how close the shoulder is to a seriously deep ravine.

There's also nothing like a shared physical endeavor to help people connect. I enjoyed several conversations with various fellow Rotarians as we walked along Route One with our red balloons. I'm relatively new to the club, so it was a good bonding experience for me. As was the camaraderie after at the Pub. People should get out and walk together in big groups more often, even if just for the pleasure of it. (Not that walking for charity is a bad thing--for every $6 we raised, 20 kids will get polio vaccinations.)

Walk for charity
but also for that cardinal,
view, conversation.