Sunday, December 23, 2012

walk with me

I love to walk.  I walk a lot.  When I have to get someplace in the city, I walk.  But after a few days in NH (where I tend to just hop in the car) I needed to get outside, get moving, get chilly.  So I took a walk.

I began with a purpose.  There's a reliable oyster-mushroom-producing-tree about a mile from my parents' house.

En route, I noticed other edibles.  Some still available,


 

others not.

As I left the road and headed into the woods, my focus turned from edible plants to the things a New Englander takes for granted:

uneven stone walls leading through an oak forest;

ground pine and partridge berry;

lichen and pine needles to remind you the air is clean and the soil acidic;

moss and oak, oak and moss;

the last light of the day illuminating tenacious beech leaves.

It was almost dark when I got back to the house.  I love the woods of Pennsylvania, but they're not the same.  Not like home.

























5 Comments:

At December 23, 2012 at 8:19 PM , Blogger Frank said...

They aren't the same are they. Thanks for the walk :-)

 
At December 24, 2012 at 3:39 AM , Anonymous Leda Meredith said...

Beautiful - thanks for taking us along! Those partridge berries are edible, although not an especially choice ingredient.

 
At December 24, 2012 at 8:17 AM , Anonymous Zoe said...

Tis the season to notice and enjoy all these quiet forest details. I have been going back and forth from PA to VT over this past year, and at each transition am struck by the difference in the woods... the pointed firs up north, the brighter and more open hardwood forest here. It is always exciting to be in a slightly difference ecosystem than what one is used to. Hope you have a wonderful winter, Ellen.

 
At December 24, 2012 at 1:35 PM , Anonymous Charles Y. said...

Yes, Rhode Island is similar, and it has many beautiful places to walk too. What do you use the sumac for? Happy Holidays and thanks! :)

 
At December 24, 2012 at 4:10 PM , Blogger Ellen Zachos said...

Leda, of course, you're right about the partridge berry. They're just not tasty enough to stay on my radar. But if I were starving... And Charles, the sumac berries make a tart juice that can be drunk like lemonade, made into jelly, or combined w/rum for an adult beverage. : )

 

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