Hmmm, what better way to celebrate my new found freedom than a riverside stroll in the last breath of summer?
The summer of 2023, the first of my retirement years, has been so very good to me. Plenty of bright, sunny days to indulge my passion for exploring the wonders of nature. Enough rain to keep the ponds and marshes full and the foliage lush and green. I have spent more time in the arms of Mother Nature this summer than I have in the last ten years combined.
Summer blessed me by lingering throughout September. As October approached, I prepared myself for cooler days and a slow slide to the end of the season. But then came the surprise. Summer rallied for an encore into the first few days of October.
If you are the kind of person who loves autumn most among the seasons, that encore may not have been to your liking. But I welcomed it with open arms and kept up my summer routine of nature hikes.
This past Wednesday I spent an idyllic, few hours on the Rotary Riverside Trail along the Grand River outside Caledonia. The sweet, whistling drone of Cicadas serenaded me punctuated by the recurring soft thump of walnuts in their apple green casings dropping from the Eastern Black Walnut trees that line the trail.
A sibilant breeze rustled the limbs of the trees coaxing a steady shower of leaves to flutter down and around me. The Grand River rolled lazily by in rhythm with the breeze and the chorus of Cicadas. Sunlight played hide and seek with the shade as I strolled down the trail. A small contingent of insects took advantage of the unexpected heat to dance once more
A late Eastern Comma butterfly emerged from the trees and proudly displayed the dead leaf pattern of its outer wing with the namesake white comma mark. Gaudy American Rubyspot dragonlies chased one another along the shoreline.
A Northern Caddisfly darted hither and thither showcasing its elegant orange-brown markings and its ridiculously long, checkered antennae. A Say’s Trig ventured out from its hiding spot to bask in the sun.
A pair of Ichneumon Wasps got in on the act posing on broad, green leaves at the side of the trail.
The last indulgent exhale of summer was unexpected but so very welcome. The riverside trail was the perfect place to take it in even if I did have to dodge the artillery of golf-ball sized – ocassionally baseball-sized — black walnuts falling around me!
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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Tags: Grand River · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Mother Nature · Rotary Riverside TrailNo Comments