Time Traveling

I have been getting my rail road trackin' on this week and it has got my train of thought going wild!
My friend and fellow (way better) blogger Dana commented that she enjoys it because you can imagine yourself in a different time. There are long stretches where you can't see anything that would give away the year you are in. I really enjoyed playing that game today while walking the rails. Roxi loves it too, and we stay in sync with each other as I try to get a stride that matches the ties (nearly impossible) and she wanders back and forth the tracks, just ahead of me.

Is it 1931 or 2011?
I find myself astounded by everything around me. Little treasures here and there...
The sound is even amazing! Today was very windy and a dry 80 degrees; tornado watch weather. It was delightful and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees was music to my ears. The sound those high winds make blowing through the power lines was wicked, like an instrument. To be more accurate, it reminded me of the rising vocal chorus at the start of Motley Crue's "Shout At The Devil". I wish I could have recorded it, you wouldn't believe it otherwise!
The afternoon sun made theatrical lighting; all the new spring growth glowed that fresh, young green.
Here is a Pitt Bull carcass lying in the middle of the tracks. Did he get run over or dumped off here? Roxi was only slightly interested and seemed nonplussed by the mummified corpse of one of her own.
I have quite a bit going on this year and I find the more I do, the more I have to do more. It's necessary for me to have a nature escape from this city I live in. I'm really appreciating my ability to move through this physical plane in this handy body I've been given. It's an easy thing to take for granted, especially after winter hibernation.
I can get to this place in a 9 minute walk from my front door! I was brought up to find nature anywhere I live. I need an escape where I can recharge, get grounded, loose myself in thought, loosen up, sweat, commune with the world around me.
As I write this I'm sitting on my front porch in the dark, listening to the owls socialize.
I have lived this day to the fullest! What more can I ask?

Heaven is right here on Earth.

It's Spring, and this nature worshipper couldn't be happier! I'm just...
...beside myself.


The Wintersweet is just now blooming, and I can hardly believe how delicious it smells. It's an olfactory ritual when it blossoms each spring, putting me in the Spirit of the miraculous and magnificent season with one whiff.
Everything is stretching and yawning awake from the past season, coming out from under the covers of winter.
I celebrated the day by treating myself to a long awaited rail road tracks walk. It is the perfect solution for a nature lover stuck in the city limits. I didn't take my camera and immediately regretted it, but at least I was free to soak it all up in my brain, instead of in a frantic, greedy race to capture it all. I promised myself to take my camera with me in the morning when I return, I can hardly wait!

There's so much to love about "trackin'", for one there is cool stuff littered about, just waiting to be spied & snatched up. Today I found a glass insulator cap, stunning even in it's broken state. I also picked this chunk of coal up, there's always coal on rail tracks from the train bouncing its cargo. Watching a coal train with its load overflowing, listening to the rumbling and singing of steel is an experience to be relished.
A train did pass me & Roxi today, we sat on the rocky embankment watching it pass and she jumped around a bit but seemed comforted by the state of joy I was in.
I am looking forward to plunging into this RR tracks theme...
I learned from some awesome Atlanta antique jewelry dealers that "jet" is a mineral similar to coal. I have seen anthracite carving that is every bit as beautiful as jet. All that mourning jewelry that I so heartily lust after is a fancier coal, essentially. I'll do a little research on anthracite, and hope that my secret source does contain some of this more dense coal with fewer impurities.
I have visions of silver bezels set with my own anthracite carvings.
Damn, I even make coal fancy!