In the Forest

Last week I went into the forest on Mount Caesar in Swanzey, which is something I haven’t done for a while. Long enough so I can’t remember when the last time was, in fact. I wasn’t here to climb, just to look around and get a feel for what the woods were up to. You can tell by the size of the trees that this area had been cleared for pasture back in the 1800s. Too rocky for cows, most of it was given to sheep. Though I wasn’t looking for mushrooms right off I saw a purple cort nestled up against a fallen branch. It looked like a map of the universe hidden right here in the woods, and a pine needle drew my attention right to the sun. It was beautiful, and unexpected. An odd thing I saw was a shagbark hickory nut, shelled. If a squirrel had gone to all the trouble of peeling it open, it would have eaten it. Squirrels can tell the quality of a nut just be smelling it and they don’t waste time opening “bad” ones. That’s why I think a person, possibly a child, opened it. It looked like a…