my oldest friend

 

The river is finally ice free and we are able to spend evenings fishing by the shore. I know it looks like a lake, but it is actually a river, a very broad river in some places as close to our home. You can see the Russian mountains in the background. Our small aluminium boat will go into the water this weekend so there will be som short boat trips if the weather improves a little. 

My path in the forest is also finally open, free for snow. The peace of walking in the woods, friends, there is nothing like it. Taking in all the details, trying to spot trees that have fallen during winter storms, new animal dens or tracks and just simply taking it all in. I have walked this path many many times over the years and I know it so well but I still find new details that I have missed. We still have no leaves on the trees, though they are just about ready now. So so close. If we get some sunshine this weekend, the forest is going to explode in green. 

One of the best parts of taking my daily walk in the forest is hugging my favorite pine tree. The tree is old, several hundred years I would say. Some branches have started sagging downwards, an indication that the tree is old. In the Øvre Pasvik National Park, which is a couple of hours south from us, the oldest pine trees are dated to 700 years ago. Each time I walk past my favorite tree I wonder what she has seen in her long life and how many hundred years she still has to contemplate the changes in this crazy world we are living in. She is the oldest living thing I will ever meet in my entire life, it put things into perspective really.

Hope you have a great weekend friends. We are slowly easing into warmer weather, I am clearing the garden so I can plant a few things and building some more book shelves inside. Will post about what I am up to in the garden soon. 

“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever.

And you look at the tree and you allow it.
You see why it is the way it is.
You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way.
And you don’t get all emotional about it.
You just allow it.
You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that.
And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’
That judgment mind comes in.
And so I practice turning people into trees.
Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

~ Ram Dass