Under A Pine

This morning was cool (49 deg.) and windy so I knew I needed to find a spot out of the wind, and in the sun. Brrr! As I thought about the lay of the land, I remembered one spot that would provide both: the old road down near the rusty, defunct bridge gets direct morning sun and runs through woods thick enough to block winds from the NE.

Old Thompson Road is nothing but a narrow, rutted roadbed that ends in deep ditch just before the bridge. On the hill above the bridge Duke Power keeps clear a portion of the road that has lines running beside it. I picked a spot there, beneath some short leaf pines, where a cluster of British Soldiers (lichen in bloom that look like they're wearing little red caps) caught my eye. The sun felt warm, I was out of the wind. Perfect!

Except ... Daisy was curious. She walked in front of me and wanted to sniff and look at everything. She sniffed at my pen and then at the pencil box and in my attempt to get her to move, she stepped on the box and flipped it, spilling art supplies across the ground. She stepped on the lichen I was drawing, and when I asked her to please move, she sat. Everything I tried to draw was a new and exciting discovery for her. Sniff. Sniff. She knocked over my cup of water and ate the ice cubes; she dug up my small pine, and got her dirty paws on my journal (Daisy, OFF!) but luckily the dirt was dry, so it brushed off. I could go on, but long-story-short, she finally, finally! curled up and took a nap.

This journal page shows all the little things growing under the tall pines. I had to sneak away to find another baby pine since Daisy was sleeping on the first one.