in all its glory

one of the things i was most looking forward to about st. louis is that it is so close to the country. as you may have speculated from the name of my blog, i am the kind of person who feels best when i am "at one with nature." when i was a child, i used to dream about what it would be like to be a native american. oh, who am i kidding. i still dream about it.

so, in an effort to spend as much time as i can outdoors while we are living here, i decided to implement a walking "program"...i am taking a 30-60 minute walk every day, either in the morning or at night (or both!). the first day i set out, my main intention was to just explore the area, get my bearings, and--let's be honest--check out the neighbors' houses! being that our neighborhood it fairly new, there isn't much nature to speak of. some millionaire had the bright idea to buy a huge plot of land, bulldoze all of the incredible trees, and start building from the ground up. mind you, in houston, i wouldn't have even thought twice about the horrendousness of this. it has always been a city of concrete to me...even in the suburbs. buildings for miles around. you almost forget that there was ever naturally growing vegetation. here, however, it seems like a crime. as i began to venture just one street beyond our neighborhood, i realized how incredible the land must have truly been before mr. million dollars came to town. i was blasted with the intoxicating smells of giant blue spruce and honeysuckle as i brisked past the houses. i cannot even describe the sheer mass of the tremendous oak trees that tower in the front yards. one such tree actually brought me to a standstill. it sits on a large plot of land near the roadway. the small house to which it belongs sits about 20 yards back. the entire lawn is shaded. this tree is so capable of masking a whole yard AND its home that i had to try and wrap my brain around why someone would even consider cutting one of them down. and as i stood there pondering, the breeze began to rustle the leaves way above my head. have you ever heard the sound of tens of thousands of leave stirring at the same time? music. i had to practically force myself to press homeward.

on my second day out, i decided to give our "new" neighborhood another shot. i hadn't seen the entire 4 streets yet and was curious just how long it would take me to walk all the way around it. despite the lack of trees and wonderful smells, i will say that it is still a very lovely place. many of the lots that are still empty are covered with a blanket of white clover. picturesque lush green with tiny white flowers budding on top. and here and there, it is speckled with a bright yellow dandelion or two....or perhaps more....for it was the dandelions that gave me a most pleasant surprise that morning. as i rounded the corner to head down the last street, i entered a dream. floating gently around me were hundreds of dandelion seeds, fluffy and soft white. as i peered further down the road, i saw a snowfall filling the air. a summer snow. standstill. you cannot imagine the beauty. they all just seemed to hover around me while i stood there on pause. i knew that there was little chance of me seeing this exact happening again. i wished that i had taked my camera along to capture it for someone else to enjoy. but then again, maybe i am secretly glad that i soaked in this moment alone.