Each summer my Beloved vanishes into the Northern wilderness, paddling his solo canoe, in calm and quietude, persisting on what the REI freeze dried section had to offer. I’m saying calm and quietude both as description of what it is he seeks and what I tell myself as mantra, in place of thoughts of forest fires, bear attacks, appendicitis or any other scary mishap, thoughts that destabilize me.

And while he sleeps under the stars cl0se to the arctic circle, or swims in icy rivers of Saskatchewan, I try to escape our insane heat with early, early morning walks with my dog Milo. The photos, all taken with an iPhone this morning, document the beauty in front of my doorstep – a quick 15 minute walk away from my house.

Around 6 am you have the forest to yourself – proof of that lies in the fact that about every 5 meters you walk into a spiderweb threaded across the path that no-one before you disturbed and that now clings to hair and nose and glasses…..

There is a nest with fledglings of a red-tailed hawk, too high to photograph, but you hear them screech and see the parents swoop in and out. There is a dried-out stream where clouds of little dragonflies hover until the pup storms in and disperses them. There’s tons of scat, coyote and deer (who have decimated the flowers in my yard, but are polite enough to go and do their business in the woods…)

And after you come home, already drenched in sweat even this early in the day, there waits a shower and clean clothes. Who needs Alaska?

 

 

And here is the Song of the forest – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ivh9WmEv7Y&list=OLAK5uy_lV_MZJPnDxTXkITO2TbslWW8OYkTKUK44