Celery Bog frog

We found a friend at the Celery Bog last night. I love the frogs there.

"A tent on steroids," and perhaps more.

A yurt is unlike other spaces. The cornerless but windowed environment offers the closest thing to 360 degree views without actually being outside (and having eyes in the back and top of your head). There is a sense of largeness in a yurt that doesn't exist in a comparably sized structure with traditional corners. The circularity of the yurt drew my eye around, and around, and eventually, up:



In a yurt, you are at once sheltered and yet integrated into the natural environment.

There are fewer compromises required in a structure like this. After staying in the yurt, I have a theory that the mind, like a watermelon grown square within the confines of a box, will take on the shape of its environment. As the hours passed, I could feel the corners of my own boxed-up brain smoothing and stretching out. Thoughts, words and feelings bubbled up more easily. It was a magnificent place to do creative work.

Bear Lake

See the yurt in the lower left hand corner? That was my home for three days this week.

Cedar Tree

I suppose it's foolish to try to write anything of substance with two boys, age 7 and almost 13, playing pool and air hockey downstairs. I keep hearing unidentified crashes and bangs -- and honestly, I prefer to keep them unidentified. It goes something like this:

***CRASH***

Almost thirteen-year old: "My Bad!!"

All righty then. At least we have accountability.

We started out this weekend on a ten-mile trail, and got about a mile and a half of it done before the sole of The Boy's boot detached almost completely. We hiked out, sought duct tape, and drove to the Hocking Hills and did day hikes.

We hiked first at Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills complex. I felt, for a moment, as if I were back in Oregon. The trail back to the falls was lined with fragrant cedar and coated with pine needles. A short hike led us here: