listen to my hike

listen to my hike
Originally uploaded by ellajohn

My beloved and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary on saturday. We spent the weekend in a a cabin at Mountain Lake with our children, hiking, swimming, playing lawn chess, and birdwatching. We listened to the clamor of frogs at night and songs of the barn swallows by day. There was hot tubbing, pool shooting, and even a magic show.
Almost one, three, and seven required some heavy lifting.

On saturday we wanted to go on a hike around the lake but knew that John probably wouldn't make it and would have to be carried. I told John to go ahead and enjoy the walk, and I kept the kids in the cabin. John and Ella got in bed and slept, and Ruby and I played on the front porch. When he got back I decided to take the same hike. It was gorgeous. The forest around here is so primordial. I saw a scarlet tanager, a flicker of orangey red in the rhododendron. I walked a narrow path through fern and moss and twisted tree roots, and then the path grew rocky, winding through rocks the size of city buses. I emerged from the woods to walk across the empty lakebed imagining the myriad of fossils beneath my feet.