Bort, Bones and Acorns

There's things I like about walking in the woods, specific things that are hard to ever describe in any human words - it's something that only connects with your own soul or another soul standing there with you... a soul who might be looking too. Not everyone looks, at least not in the same way.
Not everyone sees everything there, which is why I have always loved to walk with another person, another set of eyes with me so that the discoveries double, the moments are shared, the rest of the world & my own problems disappear. I forget, just about everything.
Bort has been my closest nature friend for what seems like a lifetime but is a blink of a dinosaur eye in history, today we walked aimlessly but began collecting things. First I thought I would collect some small trees for a Barnyard project...
but then Bort saw the bones.
He found a skull, some teeth, some claws, the jaw bones... we tried guessing the skull was of something like a raccoon, we tried guessing who mighta' ate it since there was also a cracked snail shell there, and animal tracks & trails. Bort mentioned an owl eating while dropping things high up in the trees, i wondered about what was the biggest animal an owl could eat.
Then I found the spine bones up a few feet...

I sometimes think if i had snacks (aka enough food) I could spend forever in the woods. Then again... I suppose I do.

In the same area we found the BIGGEST most magnificent acorns I have ever seen - so healthy, so plump and perfect. Hardly a rotten one. A neighbor later drove up as we came down the hill with our bag full of acorns, and said that lots of acorns meant a harsh winter. I can only hope this year i have worked as hard as a squirrel to be prepared.

(BTW- we plan to dry and cook these acorns! read more about it HERE.)

OUR COLLECTION(S) ::::::

I would like to use the tiny bones to make decorations for my baskets or jewelry. And to be in awe of how pretty they are.

The acorns, will be for food (upcoming post soon!).

Xoxoxo

Slitherin' Mania: Copperhead, Black Snake, and 6 ft Snake Skin

The snakes are back! Yesterday I was in Big Sandy Mush... me and Bort were talking about how we had not seen any snakes yet this year, which I guess summoned them from the depths cause not an hour later we had a snake fest.The first snake spotted was a copperhead under some thorny blackberry bushes on a concrete path that leads up to the Silo. It was sitting all coiled up and very alert. I did not feel as though the snake was at ease and I kept a good distance and left it alone. The eyes on this one actually look like they are made of metallic copper colored material - which is probably why Bort was utterly 'creeped out'- (understatement on his reaction to copperheads).
We also stumbled upon a large black snake warming itself in the woods on top my favorite tree. It had some unusual markings on it's side that we didn't know was from a fight/injury or if it was getting ready to shed it's skin... it slithered down the tree trunk and literally did a disappearing act (hole in the ground, hide under the bark, hole in the tree???) It slithered into the oblivion.
When Bort tried to show me another black snake that lives in his well house it wasn't in sight, but the skin it shed was hanging from the rafters and I pulled it down. It was split in two pieces (in the middle of the belly it had broke), but Bort held it together and the snake is about 6 feet LONG!
Not only that but the skin was fresh and new enough to have the head totally in tact! How cool is this??! Even the eyeball skin is on there!
I got to keep this snake skin and brought it home. It smells gross like an old fish, but I can't stop myself from loving it.
Xoxoxo'ssssssss

Big Sandy Mush: Nodding Trillium, Blood Root and Cassette Tape Dance Party

Yay! I got to go for a visit to Big Sandy Mush yesterday - in my GMC Jimmy... the drive was a descent into a deeper more green spring then I've been experiencing high on the mountain in Luck. Every moment was one of magic... seriously filled with butterflies, color, flowers, with various smells of trees, honey combs and blooms.
There were some of my favorite wild & native plants growing over there - and Bort dug up some blood root for me to take back with me to the cabin. He dug it up with a neat handmade 'shovel' cut from a piece of bamboo... (see pic below) ... (i like that alot!)We found some nodding trillium too! The flowers of the nodding trillium are underneath the three leaves (hence the name.)

But the party REALLY got started when Bort helped me fix the cassette tape player in my GMC Jimmy ---> which was holding a big ole' grocery bag full of my cassette tapes thanks to my mom who brought them all the way from New Orleans.

We opened up the doors and back hatch, and turned those old mix tapes on high volume... and of course when I hear things like Billy Idol singing 'Rock The Cradle Of Love' I naturally must jump onto the hood of my funky ole' truck and dance like the girl in the video did!!!

We blew on the wishie flowers (dandelions) but I forgot to make a wish.... not feeling like I have any wishes must be a good thing, maybe cause it feels like all my wishes have come true lately. :)

What was Bort's wish? I wanna know.
Bye bye Big Sandy Mush... the rain clouds rolled in and I rolled outta there back to the Luck Cabin.
xoxoxoxo