I was born and grew up in Northwest Ohio – Toledo and then Perrysburg.  At 24, I took a job that moved me to San Francisco area and then several years later I moved to Los Angeles where I lived for 13 years before my move to Montana in early ’94. 

Karl will do a bit of a perimeter check on his own first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening, but he is a homebody dog – staying in the “yard” unless I walk out and then he happily goes with.  We are in the habit of a walk down the driveway as soon as there is a bit of light for me.  Karl will venture into the woods on the way back, but the trip out is along the driveway.  I have a cup of coffee with me and I amble along as he stops to sniff and explore a bit.

 A few days ago I was standing where I took the photos above, absently watching Karl sniff around and looking at the moss covered stump.  When I lived in Los Angeles there was always a neighborhood bagel place that I could walk to from my apartment.  Standing in the early morning – something about the stump and the trees – it brought a vivid picture to mind of the contrast between the surroundings of my current home and how I once lived in the city.  In California and particularly Los Angeles, I lived in apartments that were mostly next to other apartment buildings and I had maybe one window that looked at a bit of a tree.  I was fortunate to find smaller buildings where I was one of 2 apartments on the floor so had windows on 3 sides usually, but still – it was Los Angeles – the city… sidewalks, cars, buses, small yards immaculately landscaped, office buildings…

In Montana, even my first house on a 90 x 100 lot in a subdivision – was a treed lot and there were 2 lots next to me with no homes as well as a woods behind that was a buffer between my subdivision and the one next – a huge leap from L.A.  The next move took me to a transitional rental on Flathead Lake – on the lake with my own little beach and also woods and orchard around and between the house and the road.  Swan River Road was next – a little craftsman house on 6 acres with about 2/3 in yard/pasture and 1/3 in woods – the river across the road and Swan Range rising to the east.  The house was surrounded with old growth birch and pines

Now, here I am in the 8 acre woods and cabin – turned into small ranch house – 175 yards off the road,  on top of  the first foothill before the Swan range,  40 acres of meadow beyond my woods opening onto vistas of the mountains, 40 acres of state land on the north boundary, and a nice neighbor who enjoys quiet and privacy as I do – to my west.  The woods is newly thinned and healthy with grasses and wildflowers growing up in between the trees.  The sun shines through the trees in a beautifully filtered pattern which changes from first light to last.

It is difficult to explain the thoughts and feelings that flitted through my mind in a manner of seconds – the contrast between the city and this woods.  I have lived in the lush midwest, near enough to the ocean to walk to the beach, in a neighborhood, on a lake and now in the woods by the mountains.   It is the woods by the mountains that I love best.  I bought a poster when I was 16 – it was about 2 feet wide and 4 feet high – it was simply sun shining through the trees of a woods – I could nearly duplicate the poster with any photo of my woods…. from the front porch, Saturday, July 21, 2007.