corner view~my favorite hang out

forest in France

Ever since I was a little girl my favorite hang out has been the forest.  Growing up in the countryside in New York we had a small forest in our back yard -- My brothers made up a version of baseball using hard rounded pine cones. They played this in our back yard for hours.  We would walk down our street past our two neighbors, then there was open forest land and cornfields as far as you could see.  I spent many hours of my childhood roaming this land, picking flowers for my mother, playing hide and seek with my siblings.  Although there were certain woodland flowers we were not allowed to touch, somehow I could distinguish those from the "weeds."

My grandparents also lived in the country in Pennsylvania, and we would walk up their street to "the woods," as they called it there.  In the wintertime my grandfather would pick ground pine and make beautiful wreaths out of this woodland treasure.      

I love how forests everywhere nourishes me -- walking among the tall trees on a hot day, shaded by their magnificance, embraced by their gigantic branches.  I love the tiny ferns, mosses, berries and wildflowers that grow there.  I love deer, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons, wild birds.  I love the smell of forest dirt, layer upon layer of leaves and bark that have been left untouched.

I also love open natural spaces, vast expanses of green, and the feeling I get when I see them -- I want to explore into the openness.  "If I walk for five minutes," I tell myself, "I will be surrounded by nature, and only nature."       

I guess green is my color.

Pittsford, New York

 

path in San Ramon, California

castle in the Dordogne region, France

park in Paris

reservoir in Lafayette, California

To see various people's favorite hang outs around the world go here.