Earth Day

Celebrated Earth day in the beautiful woods behind Veterans Park just outside Fortville. My earliest memories of the beauty and wonder of the natural world are of the times I walked from my home in Fortvile to wander the woods there. I worked on merit badges for scouts there and with my buddies went to the woods often as it was so close. The woods are still the same size as they were, but access is now limited with the woods divided up among several owners.

I alway spend time there every spring and am never disappointed with the experience, even though mushroom hunting has not been very good over the last few years. None today. I did see Tennessee warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, Northern Parulas, brown creepers and pileated woodpeckers.Just sitting being still in this wonderful place takes me back to the hundreds of time I have been there. For a small- town flatland kid, I was enthralled by the hilly woods with small streams threading through it.

I alway cap my trip there to the site of an old dump, where generations of groundhogs have each year brought up new crops of bottles from deep within the earth. Over the years I have found many unusual bottles. Today I found an old ink bottle, not very valuable, but after having been underground for eighty or so years, a wonder.

Tomorrow I will join the other Nickel Plate Boys at the Big Hat Bookstore and Gallery for Brian Kimberling's book signing. I look forward to meeting Brian and hearing the Poison River Boys bluegrass.

The display of my rustic willow furniture, John Bundy's duck decoys and tables, Bruce Neckar's bird prints, and John Reynolds wonderful wildlife paintings will remain in display after the signing, through June.