The property my house sits on – my name on the deed: the woods that are part of that property – they are magic to me.

The woods have light and dark, color, warmth and enveloping love…unexplainable.

I’ve been in this woods at all times of the day and night.

After Karl’s passing, the woods were hard to be in for awhile. He and I…we spent so many days and those last months…nights in the woods. The nights I especially remember as it was winter and dark. But, those times were so special. My memory of those times is warm. And some nights now, when I walk in the woods with Bear, in the dark, I wonder how it was that I did not trip over downfall, or feel fear? How did I feel like I could walk and follow Karl in the late night and very early morning and be ok?

Sometimes, Karl stopped and sat or lay down and so did I. I sat on a stump, or sometimes just lay on my back in the snow on the ground – Karl near and quiet all around us.

I know these woods well. I know the game trails, the crooked trees, the copses. I love these woods and I feel that the woods love me and mine.

From the woods.

**I don’t usually have the house spot lights on when we walk in the morning and night as they actually make it harder to see the ground as well as the night sky. I turn them on for a bit before we go out to alert the wild things, then turn them off for our walk. The morning I took this photo, I accidentally left the front spot on but we were out and Bear wanted to go, so we went. As we walked in the woods, I happened to look toward the house when the crooked tree was blocking the direct path of the spot. It looked so like the woods feels to me that after our walk I went back out with the camera to see if I could capture the way the woods feels in the dark. I’m happy with the result.