…and finally one last walk in the woods. This is a reserve which was near Ann’s house and as well as having Pocahontas songs in my head for much of it, I was also reminded of several M Knight Shyamalan films. The picture above: The Village (except for there was noise from the Interstate a couple of hundred yards away).

Apparently the caterpillar in the next shot is an indicator of whether it’s going to be a hard winter or not. Ann couldn’t remember whether a large black stripe meant a hard or mild winter. And further down the path we found another one with a big black stripe. So, either the theory is bunkum or the hard/mild winters will be *very* localised.

The photo below says “Signs” to me. Either that or Field of Dreams.

I just love the way the sun peeps through the fir trees and catches the deciduous leaves. Very, very pretty and I’m glad it’s come out quite well in the pictures.

There were some plants on this reservation called Milkweed which disperse seeds in a similar way to Dandelion – a pod (which pre-bursting looks a little bit like a small brown bird on a stick) bursts, and flings out seeds on really fluffy soft …fluff. Man, that fluff is soft. I gathered up four or five pods so I could send them to Debbie for her to try spinning some gossamer light as air awesome thread, and when I got back to Ann’s home looked up whether this had been attempted before. I found (on Wikipedia, so it might not be true) that although it has been attempted to manufacture yarn using the flax of milweed, it’s never proven to be commercially viable. Part of me decided that I was actually planning to bring back a world of pain for my friend, so I left them there. However, Debbie, if you’re interested in giving it a go, I’m sure Ann would be happy to collect some for you. It’s really super-soft flax…

I found this highly amusing: a picnic area with a big “Danger” sign in front of it. We determined that the danger was that the ground was eroding on the curve of the creek so if you weren’t looking where you were going it was alarmingly easy to go for a swim. Either that, or there’s a monster in the woods which leaps out and attacks unsuspecting picnic-goers. Especially if they bring salt & vinegar crisps. It loves those.