The ruins of the Spring House.
Trees along the Cove Forest trail.
Today has been another adventure. It's amazing how different I feel here during the day and during the night. Last night I stayed in the Rock House until 10pm and then had to walk the dark, long, wooded path back to my cabin. I was fairly certain that I would be attacked by either a mountain lion or a black bear on the trail, and that if I managed to arrive to my studio that I would there be confronted by back-country hicks drunk on moonshine and looking for trouble. Fortunately I didn't run into either but still had a hard time falling asleep on account of the noises of the forest.
Anyway, this morning (ok, around noon) I headed out towards the Anselm Trail, but ran into a fellow resident and decided to visit her studio, talk about her work, and she also generously treated me to a delicious lentil salad. We are apparently both paranoid about being in the woods in the night, whereas in the day we couldn't imagine being anywhere more beautiful or peaceful. Eventually I headed out on the trail, where I saw a woodpecker with a fluffy white belly and some kind of salamander or lizard. I found the swimming hole (yes!) and the abandoned Spring House on Cove Forest trail. I also found the ruins of the Hunting Lodge and hacked through small trees of poison ivy to photograph it, but a storm was rolling in so it was too dark in the forest to shoot, even setting my ISO at 1600. The heavens opened just as I emerged from the woods and dashed into the Rock House.
I headed back to my studio to review the images from the hike, and took some new interiors:
Dinner tonight by the fabulous Chef Rae was eggplant parmesan, olive salad, couscous with broccoli, bread, and green beans. Dessert was carrot cake, but I was too full of eggplant parm to enjoy.
I've learned my lessons from last night and will be heading back to my studio soon while there is still light and I will not be scared of wildlife or wildmen.