Atchison County, KS, Jan. 2012
I started out my morning run on the river levy with a sighting of two bald eagles flying along the river. The sky was pretty dark grey which I’ll admit to loving in the autumn. It really brings out the vibrance of the leaves on the trees whose branches are a bit more exposed and creaky in the wind. For some reason, it feels like I’m standing inside a warm memory out there amongst them. There was an area of maple trees beaming their bright reds and purples. I wanted to climb in and never come out.. A little over a mile in, I spotted another bald eagle fly in from the field to my left and over the tree line on my right toward the river. I whispered for it to come back.. and sure enough, about two miles in, it emerged from the trees and flew ahead of me along the trail for about 50 yards before going back into the trees. I stopped where I saw it fly in and it flew out again and hovered above me momentarily before making it’s way to the other side of the river. I watched it through a break in the trees as it landed on a branch above the water. I had been feeling a little sluggish this morning, and that gave me all the energy I needed to continue on my way. I also had a brief conversation with a wolf spider who I stopped for as it was crossing the trail (I’ve reconciled my relationship with spiders), and came up with two more ideas for paper cuttings.. or I should say, they were inspired by the morning. Happy Friday.
UPDATE: I took particular notice of the back of the spider because it looked rather spiny looking — almost like a tiny furry pine cone or something.. and with a little research on the ol’ interwebs, I found out that the spider that I saw is called a “rabid wolf spider” and her back looked spiny because she was carrying her babies on it. Cool.