I'm back! - I think....

It's been over a year since I last posted. When my college classes had to go online in response to the arrival of COVID19, I found the nature-walking spirit that inspired this blog for nearly 15 years to have evaporated. When the Spring of 2021 arrived, I got excited about nature walks with my camera and Moleskeine journals and started building an archive of photos that has continued to this day, but I couldn't bring my self to go online and share my findings with the world - that is, my small world of known followers, many of whom would stop me on the streets and trails and ask - when are you going to resume the blog? I started making note in my written journal "need to resurrect blog," but it never happened. That is, until now. The stimulus that caught me by surprise was the little piece of wood pictured here. On a recent frigid morning the Gnome spoke to me. He's been on our front porch the 15 years we've lived in this house, and in our possession for 8 years before that. I wish I could remember the lady who gave it to me. She was the artistic mother of one of my high school students.

     The blog might be a bit "sketchy" for a while. I'm out of practice. In fact, if it were not for available tech support from my son, I probably wouldn't have dared to resume. I probably post a mix of archived photos of spring observations - by way of urging Spring to hurry up and get here - and current observations made on my nearly daily nature walks. For the past six months my walks have been almost entirely here in American Valley. Until tomorrow....