After the Hurricane (Week Seven)

I walked into the woods with some apprehension this morning, expecting to see a lot of devastation during the storm. But the woods are sustaining themselves. There was a dead tree down across my path, easy to move. Lots of leaves had fallen,

but I was surprised to see how many had not. One quadrant of my "circle" had opened up,

but the rest was much as before.

The main sound today was a wood chipper--unremitting. This made it hard to listen for birdsong (I think there was less, than two weeks before) or squirrel chatter. At one point I heard a sound (which I don't know how to reproduce here--cr--rr--kk?) and I realized I didn't know if it were bird or rodent.

How very little I can name, of what I encounter in the woods. How very little I recognize, how much less I can say that I know...