Strange Holidays

[blairmacg]

I am not religious, but celebrate the "big" holidays as if there were secular events.

But now that Dev is older, the rest of the family lives elsewhere. My single and non-religious friends -- the ones who usually shared holidays with us -- have likewise moved away. The majority of people I know in the area celebrate with their own family and strong religious traditions, and half of those folks believe their good churchgoing habits will eventually rub off on me and I'll be gratefully saved.

Considering all that, I didn't have much to do yesterday.

Dev, being a teenager with a day off, didn't want to do anything at all but hang out. So I put Gambit in the my car and the pup and I headed off to a nearby nature preserve I hadn't yet visited. After twenty minutes of walking in dappled sunshine along the creek, I realized I was grinning. Grinning and looking at everything. A few wildflowers, purple and violet, bloomed along the sunnier patches. Bare branches showed the tiniest of new green leaves. The sound of the creek and short falls covered almost every other sound. The only scent in the air was fresh.

And Gambit, who usually doesn't want to go first unless Ty is at his side, scouted up the trail with his little nubby tail held high. He even splashed into the creek shallows.



Can you see the little hints of green around the tree branches?



The falls aren't high, but lovely. Just downstream, the creek widens and slows, making for a fantastic swimming hole.



Alas, the majority of the trail here is on the opposite side of the creek. Since there is no bridge, hikers must wade across the creek just above the falls, where the stone is a (mostly) flat shelf and the water is about a foot deep. Gambit adamantly refused. We'll try it again another time.

Even the road to this little preserve was enjoyable.



And evidence of the 100-year flood, which looks suspiciously like something from the Blair Witch Project.





Then I came home and made a huge dinner for Dev and I (and for the freezer), and essentially took the evening off.

So it ended up being a good day, though it felt all strange and transition-y. Next year will be different yet again, and the year after that likely different as well. My goal is to get better at planning since the past defaults are no longer there.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

What beautiful photos! You live in a lovely area.

Sounds like you had a really awesome day.

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

There are indeed pretty places, once you get outside the city limits. This little preserve is about twenty miles south of us

I remember how weird it was, when I'd newly moved here from California, to see so much empty space between cities and towns.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh yes: this is what April feels like.

And what an awesome swimming hole--did you go back there later in the summer?

My goal is to get better at planning since the past defaults are no longer there.

I should make this my goal, too.

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

I didn't make it back, no. Summer blasted by without my permission!