Rural

The forest calls and the woods whisper...                                        ....they beckon come in,                                                                               spend some time. Sunlight glistens on tiny droplets turning them into diamonds before rushing over to streak between towering trees in a race to the ground. Mushrooms lie in wait under nursery logs, clinging like crowded crowns filled with fungi jewels on the edge of the slippery wood, hidden under dripping cedar fronds. It's magical and hushed in the woods, a delicate dance of light and shadows flitting across the path. Silence presses against the rugged bark of the fir tree, a fitting hiking companion to the mountain. Moisture drifts up from the path, coating foliage, leaving it glistening, shiny and still. The rhythmic flop of wet pants easing over wet boots keeps time as we walk. Each serpentine twist of the path, and every footstep with its hard push up the hill widens t