valley

Alright, the rain is falling and the winds are down. There are many different varieties of summer days, but this one is my favorite. There is the too hot, too windy, too bright and the too humid. There are the days that the old people die from. The heat that kills all the plants in the garden and sunburns the leaves on the bushes. There are days that you need pants because you hear it's going to dip down to 80. There are days when the clouds look like they are going to make a serious attempt at killing you. There are ton of colorful days that remind you why you are living where you live in the first place. The quality of whether is usually the first thing we think about when we think of a place to live. Can I take the heat? the cold? the rain? etc. Weather has all the answers and seperates the weak and faint of heart, from the strong.

Today is a grey, rainy sunday. My favorite. You can't work no matter how hard you try. You can barely move. It takes three extra hours just to crawl out of bed. These are great days. Warm drinks make a last gasp appearance and soup sounds good for the first time in a long time and maybe the last time for several months. You must savor the urge.

I have work to do, but rain means it must be inside work, I have a ton of work to finish around the shop before more relatives descend upon the ponderosa, but I have two weeks to get it done. I have a bench to finish that goes next to the strawberry garden for pretentious viewing of strawberry plants. I see it as an easy target area for mosquitoes to use for meal time. I have some walls that need repairing on the inside of the shop that I have put off finishing until now. I have bathroom issues as the water has slowly taken some of the wood in the floor to task and is winning the "attention now" award. I have another shed to tear down and another set of storage shelves to build for garden gear. I am booked up!

So, Heidi and I are going hiking today. I love hiking in the rain because I love looking like I earned it. What I mean by that is being soaked head to toe makes the hike look longer, harder and much sexier, which should be beneficial should I happen upon a group of lustful, wanton young pixies that would like to dance around a bit.

The trees of the valley are full of life. All the fruit trees are just puting out their stock and the birds are working as hard as they can to rid them of it, but trees always seem to win. The pines always smell healthy and with as many of them living in the valley, their powerful aroma dominates everything else around. The sounds of the river are more pronounced, even beyond the drops of rain on the leaves and rocks. Mountain rivers always look like the cleanest water in the world and that gives you, the hiker, a sense of being as close to the source as you can be. What that means, I don't know. But it's something you feel out in nature.

There is nothing but shadows to walk among. There is no trail to follow and there in no half way point. You just walk into the woods and hope that your sense of direction takes you home, or to someone's home that has a phone. You walk into the trees and it's over fallen limbs, around large rocks, under this and over that. It's slow moving and you may not impress yourself with how far you make it, but when find where you are going, you know it was worth the trip.

I usually find the top of a mountain to be the best, however, I have found meadows, strange rock formations and abandoned cabins to be pretty fulfilling as well. There is great sense of youth when you find it. Like it's a great toy or prize. You enjoy the space and claim it as yours. You will never tell a soul where this is and one day... you will live here. That's what it feels like anyway.

Heidi may not make the hike, she isn't as young as she used to be and an hour is about all the time she has inside her these days. It's good to have her and you can see it's good for her spirits, but this is a younger man's game and major obstacles like climbing into the truck or jumping off the two foot porch are hard for her now. Hilarious to watch, but not easy to accept. I like having her on hikes because she finds every dead thing within fifty yards of my trek and brings it over to show me. I think she wants me to it and when I pass, she thinks, "do you mind if I do?"

Rain enhances the color of the forest and makes the smells stronger. The bugs are gone, for the most part and it makes for comfortable hiking. Until you find a rock or log that you have to cross and it is just begging you to step on it so it can send you slipping to your death. I have found that the slickest rocks are next to cliffs. If you fall and die, they never find you. Then you become a great local mystery and Dateline comes to do a story about it. You must be cautious. Outside attention like that would ruin the untouched beauty of this place and then everyone would find your body just so they could pee on it.

After the walk, it's home to peal off clothes, have tea or coffee, enjoy some soup, read, watch a movie and "have some time with myself". Which I don't recommend out on the hike. It's not as easy as you think to do. If you found an interesting stick that you used to walk with and swore you would always use as a walking stick, you have to store it away now so it will lose it's value and get thrown away later. Your clothes come off and get a wash or a lay out to dry, both of which feel good. From warm to wet, and from wet to warm. That is a good day in the forgottens. The plants get their much needed drink. I get a comfy hike and Heidi gets to pretend that she's a spry little puppy for an hour or two. The secrets of the forgottens are shared with another and their promise to never share that secret is tested as he sits down to a computer and writes it all down for the angry mob to read.