Summer Adventure

Yesterday my daughter and I went out in search of a crabapple tree we had spotted on the wild side of a farmer's fallow field last fall. We've recently put away several jars of elderberry jelly and wild blackberry jelly and we are anxious to get our hands on some crabapples to make our favorite jelly in the whole world.

Last September when we were out in the field, it was full of shoulder high goldenrod. This year the field had been mown:

But we found all sorts of interesting things in and around it anyway. Like this tiny frog with a fallen blossom on his little bottom:

And a red-eyed tortoise:

Blackberries, yum! They were tasty and juicy:

A dragonfly:

And butterflies:

It's unbelievable, but we weren't able to find the crabapple tree again. We were very disappointed, but we decided to go into a certain part of the forest in order to do some exploring.

To reach it, we had the option to blaze a trail through thick, torso-high growth which hadn't been touched by a blade, or to cut into a thick barrier on one side of the forest which consisted of tangled, close-growing, shrubby growth.

This picture shows what we chose - that's me, hunched over, trying to find the best way through woody stalks, and, of course, Strider at my side:

My daughter broke through at one point only to discover a pond blocking our way:

Finally we reached a point where the growth opened up and we were able to make our way into the forest:

Some of the trees there are very old, and some are very tall, like this one:

After wandering around in the forest, we decided that blazing a trail through the tall brush would be a better choice than back-tracking through the thick, woody shrubs:

I can tell you that Strider was happiest in the open forest and in the mown field. He's wearing a bandanna in the picture below. He doesn't usually wear one, but for our adventure we doused a bandanna with Deep Woods Off and tied it around his neck.

We also doused our own clothing with it in hopes of keeping the ticks off, and sprayed Strider's legs and hind quarters with an all natural repellent - I dread any of us getting Lyme disease:

We were all bushed when we finally made it home. And no crabapples, but we know where to find other crabapples. We'll get some before the season is over.