May the Forest Be With You

After conferring with our mechanic by phone first thing on Monday morning, my husband and I drove down to Huntingdon to bring my Mazda home. I'll tell you more about that in tomorrow's blip. :-)

Before we stopped by the mechanic's place to get my car, though, we went for a quick walk at the Little Juniata Natural Area. The woods were very green, and everything there was as grown up as I've ever seen it. I guess we tend not to go there in full-on summertime.

We both commented that it had been quite some time since we'd been there; several years, in fact. (Where does the time go?) A poster near the trailhead said "May the forest be with you." It sounded good to me, and so I borrowed that quote for my blip.

We walked in along the railroad tracks and down along the Little Juniata river. I remembered that the last time we were there, we sat in a stone bench and ate cold fried chicken! However, alas we had no snacks this time, and a young couple was camping in that site, with a tent and a hammock, and so we said a quick hello and kept on walking.

The railroad tracks are like catnip to me, and I was tempted to try to get closer for some photos. However, things are very grown up now, and they have fences everywhere, indicating they really don't want you to do that.

I eyed the slippery pathway down the hill along the fence worn by fishermen, noted the steep incline and the jagger bushes at the bottom, and decided not to risk it. So instead of the rails, here is a photo of the green and inviting Pennsylvania woods.

Interestingly enough, the railroad tracks that run through the natural area are the same ones traveled by my train last week! In fact, as we were there hiking, the train I rode on Tuesday morning came through. I heard its whistle, checked my watch, realized what it was, and put a wiggle on to try to reach it, but failed. Maybe next time . . .

And now for a little something different, the soundtrack to accompany this woodsy image is Deep Forest, with Forest Hymn. Wikipedia describes their sound as "ethno-introspective ambient world music." :-) So let's give it a try . . . .