Follow us! We know the way! |
Our family was hiking.
The Fenlands Walk in beautiful Banff,
Alberta.
A gorgeous two kilometres of shady
trails, small bridges, and old forest next to the Bow River.
An easy walk for a group whose members
ranged from six weeks to 69 years.
We discovered woodpeckers, squirrels,
chipmunks, several ravens, and at least one bull elk.
Dozens of nests.
And, at last count, nine burrows.
Two members had fallen over tree roots
and skinned their knees.
And one had to be nursed.
It was a fun, family type of outing.
Our favourite sort.
Beside the trail were the remains of a
large, rotted tree.
A tree that had lived its life.
Perhaps a hundred years or so.
Been struck by lightening.
And then finished off by millions of
carpenter ants.
A graceful, natural end to a monarch of
the woods.
Our second son was explaining all of
this to a rapt audience of five and six-year-olds.
He grabbed the top of the ancient
trunk.
“And you see? This is what happened
after the tree was killed,” he said, pulling it aside slightly to
illustrate.
The entire trunk separated down the
middle with a soggy crack.
Our son stared at the remains.
A bit stunned by what had just
happened.
The kids were delighted.
They hadn't expected such a grand show
on our little walk.
“Wow!” one of the cousins said to
his son. “Your Dad just ripped that tree in half with his bare
hands!”
His son looked up at him and grinned.
“Yup,” he said, matter-of-factly. “My Dad is amazing.”
You can discover a lot of things when
you walk through the woods with your family.
Not all of them are about nature.
The best laughs, I am discovering, are the ones that you don't see coming. At all. Thank you for being the best one I know at delivering them :)! That super hero skill thing must run deep in your family tree . . .
ReplyDeleteWe're thinking of having shirts made . . . :)
DeleteLove it when the "good stuff" comes out!
ReplyDeleteOh, so do I! :)
DeleteArt Linkletter was right; kids say the darnedest things.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't we love it!! :)
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