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It was easy to spend time staring into the water at the Meadowbrook Preserve.  I found it so peaceful I wanted to share it with all of you.

After feeding the animals and eating breakfast I drove to Glens Falls to meet my friend Jackie. We would walk in the woods and then have lunch at a Billiards Hall that serves Caribbean food.

A day off from work.

It’s been more than a year since we took our last walk together in the woods. This one had already been postponed from earlier in the month because of snow.  But today was sunny with a bit of spring chill.

We drove together to Meadowbrook Preserve and chose a path along the brook.  There were a few cars in the lot but we didn’t see another human the whole time we were there.

We walked in the woods, which were sunny since the trees are just starting to bud.   The forest floor was green with wildflowers.

Jackie and I like to walk the woods in the same way.  We aren’t silent, but even when we’re talking we are always looking to see what we can see.

Our conversation is constantly being interrupted.

Jackie spotted the first Trout Lily, then a carpet of them as far as we could see.  We saw Dwarf Ginseng, just about to bloom, Bellwort’s, its pale yellow flower hanging straight down, a single yellow Violet, Yellow Hobblebush not yet blooming, False Hellebore growing along side the Skunk Cabbage, and more than one blooming Red Trillium.

We noticed a tree with the bark fallen off around it in long oval pieces.  A woodpecker, a porcupine, an insect?  We still don’t know what caused it.

When we got to the brook which is surrounded by marsh we saw a Great Blue Heron flying between the trees.  Later we could see the movement of three or four birds but they were too high up for us to see clearly.   Jackie recognized their song as the Norther Flicker.

We stopped on the wooden pier jutting out into the brook.  Here the brooks bottom was deep and sandy, the clear water swirling in one big and many small eddies.  “People swim here in the summer” Jackie said.  It was inviting.  we sat on our knees staring into to water long enough for a threesome of mallards to land up stream, take a bath, and fly off.

Just off the path we found an owl pellet and marveled at just how small the bones were.

And as the path looped back to the beginning, Jackie stopped and slowly walked into the woods. She held up her hand as if to warn me to be quiet.  Then she reached her hand out to a big Red Trillium.

Only after we both got a good look at it did we laugh at how she was trying to be quiet so we didn’t scare the flower away.

But I knew exactly what she meant.  Seeing the Red Trillium was the prize.  As good as finding a Lady’s Slipper.

The moth was floating on top of the water bucket.  She looked so beautiful her lacy wings spread thin, almost translucent, on the surface of the water.

I wanted to take a picture, but by now I know that just because they are not moving doesn’t mean they are dead.  So instead I floated my finger tip gently under the water, under the moth, and lifted her out.

It was only moments before she started to pull her wings in then release her drowned antennas.

I gently slid her off my finger onto the fencepost where she blended perfectly with the weathered wood.

Today a friend told me that her father used to catch flies in a glass and put them outside instead of killing them.  I use a fly swatter, wouldn’t have thought of doing that.

And yet….

By now the sheep were baaing and the donkeys were impatiently pushing the sheep around, because they could.  Zip was pacing in front of the gate and the chickens were clucking, reminding me they too wanted to be fed.

So I didn’t wait to see her fly away, but I know, from experience, that eventually she did.

Bud got a good night’s sleep after yesterday’s rat.

But he was back hunting today outside my studio.  I saw him nosing around in some leaves by the fence.  In moments he pulled his nose out of the leaves and had a mole in his mouth.

Unlike a cat, Bud wasn’t interested in playing with mole.  When he dropped it on the ground it didn’t move.  I was wondering if he would eat it, but instead he bit it in half, left the two parts on the ground and walked away.

When I told Jon about it he said that was how Boston Terriers kill rats.  I guess it’s a good way to make sure they’re really dead.

I told the mole I was sorry and put it in a pile of leaves on the other side of the fence.   I didn’t need Zinnia eating it and throwing it up at 3am.

I know that Bud hunts, but I’d never seen him catch and kill an animal before.   I was both horrified and impressed.

When we got Bud I didn’t think of him as being a good farm dog.   But I feel differently about that now.  Even if he’s still trying to dig out of the yard, he helpful in other ways.   Including being  good at snuggling.

I thought I’d do some portraits of the animals with the crab apple tree.  The first was of Merricat and Kim that I took last week.

The tree is such an important part of the barnyard.  It gives shade, food for the sheep and donkeys and is a beautiful being in itself.

Last week we disturbed these turkeys while walking in the woods.

One turkey flew in the opposite direction, crashing through the tree tops. I imagine it was trying to distract us from the flock.

It worked,  Fate and Zinnia ran towards it and not the turkeys running on the ground.

Today I found this broken turkey egg shell in the woods.  It was by itself, the dogs sniffed it out near a tree stump, which makes me think that someone stole it and ate it.

From the beginning my blog has been about showing, writing about and selling my art.  But since 2008 when I first started it,  my art has expanded from working with the repurposed fabrics that so many of you generously send me to taking pictures, videos and writing about my life, the animals on the farm and most recently my walks in the woods.

When I first started taking my Monday Morning Video I planned on doing it for one year.  Nine years later I’m still doing it.   The same subject yet different every week.  It is the fist thing I think of when I wake up on Monday Morning.  The  perfect way for me to start my week and I hope for you too.

The latest addition to my blog is my “Notes From….”  I have to credit Jon with this idea.  They began as Note From The Woods and have evolved into my thoughts, not only from my walks in the woods, but from the barnyard, my studio, or where ever I am inspired.

Like my fabric art, my blog is always evolving in the same way my Monday Morning Videos or quilts and Potholders do.

It is consistent even dependable, but never the same.

If you enjoy my writing, seeing the photos and videos of the animals, or watching my art being created, please consider donating to my blog.  Just click here to make a donation.

You can also donate to my blog anytime,  by clicking on the Support My Blog button on the top and bottom of my blog.  You can easily make a one time or monthly donation using PayPal or Venmo.  I have monthly donations ranging from $1 to $50, any amount helps.

You can also send a check to Maria Wulf PO Box 205 Cambridge NY 12816.

I want to thank everyone who continues to or  has already donated to my blog.  I so appreciate it.  Knowing that I’m being paid for my work puts my mind at ease so I’m able to do the creative work when I’m in the woods or pasture taking pictures and videos and thinking of my next blog post.

I didn’t get to my studio today.  I volunteered at the Cambridge Food Panty this morning, helping to pack up bags for the Backpack Program.  It’s provides breakfast and lunch for kids for the weekend.

Then I packed up my Meditation Tree and My Cat Pillows and got them in the mail and did some of that dreaded paperwork.

I had a follow up with my doctor about my ear infection, which I’m glad to say is all healed.

By the time I got home it was time to feed the animals and I decided to take a walk in the woods.  Even if I went to my studio I know my head wasn’t in a good place to start something new.

I am making my Meditation Tree into a poster, so I sent a photo of it to Sara Kelly to do the graphics that will make that possible.

I’ll post a photo of what it will look like when I get it back from Sara.

Our compost was particularly pretty this morning.

I think it was the dried up blue berries that I tossed in after breakfast that added just the color it needed.

The sheep and donkeys get some, like the blueberries and apple cores.  The teabags and banana peels go into the composter outside.

The flowers help too. Jon’s been buying them to photograph and when the petals fall from the stems it all goes into the compost.

Actual that’s just what the compost looked like to me this morning a colorful bouquet of flowers.  It would make a good jigsaw puzzle too.

It was only my second time at the CambridgeFood Pantry working on the Backpack Program, but I felt like I fit right in.

Maybe it’s because everyone there does very little talking and a lot of work.  That is my comfort zone.  I like to keep busy and filling up bags with food for kids is satisfying in many ways.  When the bins and boxes filled with cereal, soups, apple and snacks start to run low, someone calls out to Scott what’s needed and he comes with more of it.

Last Thursday, when we ran out of apples, Scott brought out the last of the fruit cups instead.  We were short oatmeal for five kids in one family.  But Scott came up with a small box of corn flakes for them.

It’s kind of amazing how much food goes into the bags.  And unlike buying clothes for someone who needs them, the food doesn’t last.  The next week we’re packing bags so those same children have food for the coming weekend.

Right now we need more Instant Oatmeal to fill the Backpack bags this Thursday.

Yesterday Jon put up a post asking for Fruit Juice and so many of you contributed Sarah Harrington, the Director of the Cambridge Food Pantry, was able to take it off the wishlist for now.

If you can and would like to contribute to the Backpack Program, which makes sure that children who need it, will have breakfast and lunch for the coming weekend,  just click here.  It’s a link to the Cambridge Food Pantry Amazon Wishlist, specifically for Instant Oatmeal.  It’s $15.99 for 48 packs of oatmeal.  That’s 48 breakfasts for 48 kids.

You can also see the whole updated Cambridge Food Pantry Amazon Wish list here.

And thanks so much!  I’ll be thinking of all you who did when I fill reach into the bin with Instant Oatmeal this Thursday and put them in the bags that will go to the kids who will be eating them Saturday and Sunday morning.