[ A grove of tall Ponderosa pines, rising over ground covered in pine needles. The sun peeks through the trees to the upper right, and sunbeams pierce the air. ]
I don’t know how to express how good it was to be back in the woods. I don’t … have the words for it, for the restful shade of the pines, the resinous scent of the air, the tiny, near-inaudible chuckle of water. The rustle of reeds & needles, the cry of a raven circling above.
… yeah okay I guess that was some words.
The water … the water was necessary. It had been so long since I’d been near truly running water; too long, despite the wind-ruffled wavelets of the lake, that’s not the same, I need the trickle & flow, the light flashing on water as it curves over a rock, the flicker of tiny fish.
[ A small stream dominates the lower half of the picture, wide in the foreground, winding away narrower into the distance. Above and beyond it, tall Ponderosas rise into the blue sky. ]
Of course I got my feet in that. It was skin-shockingly cold, expected but still a surprise. When I moved my feet the sound of the water — a muffled boom — revealed a hollow space beneath where I sat.
[ My pasty white feet in the water. The bottom of the stream is mud and algae and rocks. Also my legs are really hairy. ]
Water in another form hides in small sheltered spaces above.
[ Small cracked patches of ice, seen from perhaps a foot away, cover the ground. What’s visible of the earth beneath is wet; sun dappled with shade lights the scene. ]
A single cloud in all that ridiculous New Mexico sky.
[ A spiky wisp of cloud tucks into a gap between tower spires of Ponderosa. ]
& last, a leaf that’s almost more spikes than leaf & STABBED ME while I was trying to get a good picture of Loiosh taking a nap.
[ It’s almost more a stalk with an edging of leaf than a leaf proper, and yes, both the stalk and the leaf are THOROUGHLY lined with small spikes. ]
look i tried but i can only go so long before shitpost happens
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