Of woodland walks in 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

… there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.

I love ravines in all seasons, but deep haunts bestow on the attentive saunterer the fresh blessings of spring. Frogsong under descants of indigo bunting and grosbeak are announced in towhee; sentinel cardinals guard oak openings from tree tops. Quiet eyes find brilliant mosses and sunburst lichens as fragile ferns and woodland sedges fairly tumble and heap under displays of violets and flowers that look like underpants hung out to dry. The understory is told in shadblow and repeated in wolfberry and dogwood, but bitternut or basswood  get the last word. And each step deeper hears a new song and a new story and we are drawn even deeper still.

And so we love to saunter in spring, and the coming days will find us at the Aldo Leopold Center (Baraboo, Wisconsin) on May 9th and at Hitchcock Nature Center (Honey Creek, Iowa) on May 16th. Those who might join us will find the details on the New Tree School Offerings 2015 page, with other upcoming workshops, saunters and events.

Saunter on,

Jack Phillips