wild

Monday:  Wildflowers.  Wild rain.  Green things.  Spring things.  Soft rocks.  Ice cream. 

views + hues

 

Grand views, lovely hues, peonies and bumblebees.   Sunday was spent at the farm together under cool and cloudy skies.  We wandered slowly, smelled the flowers, hugged the mother tree, and collected rocks.  The constant gray of late after so many sunny days has been a bit depressing, but seeing the blueberries, apples,  figs, and flowers flourishing reminded me that there's so much goodness here already and even more just around the corner.   

just beyond the edge

Our second roadside stop Saturday.  We simply pulled over to see what was just beyond the trees at the edge of the road, and this is what we found.  Don't you wonder what's just beyond the edge of the road you normally follow?

stop : look around

Our outing Saturday was to check out Breitenbush Hot Springs.  We've wanted to check it out for a long time.  It's completely off-grid, offers healing arts sessions and well-being classes, natural soaking pools, organic vegetarian food, hiking on trails through the "ancient forest", and small rustic cabins to stay in, among other things.  I love everything about this place and look forward to spending some time here. 

Heading back toward Detroit Lake, we pulled over to the side of the road a couple of times to look around.  Most of these pictures are from one of those stops.  We've checked out places on the side of the road going to Breitenbush before, but never the two amazing places we stumbled into Saturday.  (Post on the other dreamy stop later this week.)  

Exposed tree roots beautifully woven together, smooth gray and red and blue rocks with all kinds of insects underneath that tickled Thor, otherworldly lichens and bright green mosses, rich brown glistening rain-soaked fallen trees, and the sounds of the river and wind and birds in the trees made this a place and a day to remember.  Exploring this way is always, always rewarding.  I'm so glad we take the time to stop and look around.  There is without fail something down the path worth discovering.

under the spell

Monday evening we threw the bikes and a fishing pole in the back of the truck, packed a little cooler with sandwiches and fruit, and headed back to Minto Brown.  It was warm, wonderful, and so welcome.  As we picnicked we watched osprey fly from their huge nest high above to a tree nearby, watching us and calling to each other.  The air smelled like warm earth and damp grass.  Sticks and twigs snapped and crackled under our feet as we explored trails through the undergrowth.  Puffs of cotton were everywhere - on the paths, wrapped around weeds, and on the surface of the water.  It felt like a whole different day.  Thor stopped and asked, "It wasn't today that I went to school, was it?"  ...and I knew we had truly escaped and traveled to that peaceful place where time seems to stop and all you know is that you are outside, you are together...you are under the spell of nature all around.