Tuesday I got to go to a job site, a section of land in central Oregon that remains mostly untouched by development. It will soon become a subdivision, but the area is now covered by oak and fir trees, lots of blackberry bramble and a creek.
It's been a long time since I was tromping around outdoors, and I have to admit that I did not dress for the part. I brought rain gear, but there was only fog & cold. Most of my photos are blurry and I would bet that it was from shivering.
Our job was to locate certain trees and tag them with a number for future surveys. We had a plan with the subdivision roads marked, but we were walking around locating one tree from another in dense woods. Despite being cold, and dealing with my nemesis, blackberry, it was nice to be outside again.
When we got into the center of the woods I noticed a tiny hummingbird sitting at the top of a tree. He flew off then came right back and chirped a bit. It was the oddest thing to see this itsy bitsy bird on top of the big tree which in turn was dwarfed by the scale of the woods.
The thing that stood out was the Lichen, it was everywhere. I notice a bit of it around my home, but the deciduous trees in that area were coated in lichen and not just one variety. Like I said, I ended up with some blurry photos, a couple were of the strangest lichen I'd ever seen with giant 'leaves'. But, I can only show you this tree which made me feel like I should be looking for Hobbits. Or worse. At one point I realized that these woods looked a lot like ones in creepy scenes from The Headless Horseman.
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My word for the year is Gratitude.
Today I am grateful for:
living in the northwest, a place that is beautiful year-round
tiny critters like the hummingbird, I saw another this morning
in-house washer repair
birthday gifts delivered to my door
and
the dance recital tonight - cannot wait.
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