Today the woods were full of silence. As Daisy and I headed downhill towards Meetinghouse Creek I stopped occasionally to listen for sounds. Once, I heard tiny clicks in the leaves and my first thought was - rain? It was overcast, but rain was not in the forecast. I listened harder. No. Not rain. I decided it must be an insect or young anole moving among the leaves. Daisy smelled three deer (we did not hear them) and took off to chase them downhill and back uphill and into the woods. Even her mad dash seemed to make no noise.I hiked on down to Meetinghouse Creek and turned left along the creek bank, ducking into the tangled vines and pines that grow along the sunny edge of the pipeline. By this time Daisy had lost the deer and returned to follow me. From a distance, this area of the woodland floor looks like it's covered in a smooth green carpet of Running Cedar (also known as Fan Clubmoss - Lycopodium digitatum), but as you get closer, the beautiful branched leaves take shape. Daisy walked through the green and down to the creek. I followed.
Vines grow thick all along the creek here. At one spot I noticed all these vines climbing trees (Poison Ivy, Partridgeberry and Cross Vine) or dangling down from branches (Wild Grape, and honeysuckle) or climbing up other vines (Carolina Jessamine). I settled on the edge of the small ridge above the creek to draw. It was still quiet, but a woodpecker was knock-knock-knocking on a tree a short distance away. Daisy came and sat so close she was leaning on me - I could feel her warmth, which is very comfortable and snuggly, and one of the best reasons to be a dog person.
After about an hour I packed up and Daisy and I headed out of the woods. By this time the sun was breaking though the clouds and warming things up. The birds seemed to like this too, so birdsong was everywhere: Goldfinch, Titmice, Crows, Cardinals, Kinglets, Chickadees, and Red-bellied Woodpecker.
ps: the green, thorny vine is one of the greenbriers - I think Common Greenbrier, or Smilax rotundifolia.
