Reconnecting with nature

I got outside this weekend! It wasn't so much as a hike as a nature walk (can't do much more strenuous with a 2-and-a-half-year-old in tow), but it was so lovely to get out with a bunch of trees and the sound of water.

I headed over to Landsford Canal State Park for the morning with my mother and daughter, partly in hopes of seeing the Rocky Shoals Spider Lily. The flowers were just coming out of the water, not yet blooming, but it was still a very nice park. There's not an overwhelming amount of historical or botanical explanation, but who really needs more than a few paragraphs when you can walk along next to the Catawba River, far from any evidence of humanity other than the worn path?

The Catawba is a very shallow, rocky river, which actually makes it all the more picturesque. Loads of rapids and little waterfalls ripple the current, and dozens and dozens of turtles had climbed aboard the rocks and fallen trees in the river to sun themselves — I've never seen that many in one place. It was a cool day with a steady breeze, and the fresh spring green blanketing the forest floor added to the refreshing feeling of renewal. One of the more surprising natural discoveries were these gorgeous trumpet flowers that grew in vines high up in the tree canopy. The flowers were burgundy outside and an orangey-saffron yellow inside. I took a sniff when Abbey proffered her little treasure, expecting to get a whiff of a normal light perfume, and was stunned when it actually DID smell like saffron. Very spicy, pungent. Not unpleasant, just striking and not at all what I anticipated. I walked along smelling a blossom for several minutes.

Of course, the greatest joy of the day was watching Abigail discover the woods for the first time. We've been to lots of city parks, but this was her first forest, and she was fascinated. She wanted to throw sticks in the Catawba, touch the water, smell flowers, "rake" leaves with a stick, kill "dragons" also known as fallen trees, toss prickly gum balls, find waterfalls, climb on the old masonry walls of the locks ... It's so eye-opening to see the world again for the first time through a child. Pure joy in nature. Though of course it was a bit nerve-wracking keeping her from the edge of the banks and from wandering into untold clusters of poison ivy ...