My Backyard — Sunday, Mar. 29, 2020

This is how I spent today: After morning chores of busting apart pallets and chopping kindling (really), I spent the rest of my day working in my native plant garden. I found that if I concentrated on digging in the mossy soil, trimmed some ferns and just smelled the sweet foresty smells I could imagine myself in our wonderful mountains. In my backyard, among the trillium, salal, star flower, emerging deer and maidenhair ferns, I could forget for a few moments that there is a virus keeping us away from what we love the most. There are many joys to be found as we hunker down and it's been wonderful to read so many posts from folks who are finding creative ways to comply with the gov's order and sad to read that others are not, since the more we cooperate, the sooner we can get back to business in the backcountry. This is an opportunity to enjoy the close-in places that we usually overlook. Harvey Manning wrote something that seems appropriate right now. For those who weren't around then, he was the trail guide author for many.....the Craig Romano of the 1950's through 1980's. Anyhow, as he got older, his days of first assents and explorations were over, but he wrote that he would now need to (this is very much paraphrased), "rather than know a little about a lot of places, know a lot about a few places".  There can be adventure everywhere. Let's support each other in this outdoor community with as much positivity as we can muster. It helps me to feel hopeful when I know you all are keeping yourselves and others safe.