July

This is a place I always come back to.  I grew up here... and even after moving away again and again and finally, forever, I have always returned to this place of contemplation which has remained the same though I have not.


This is the path to get there.


And here is the mountain laurel on Laurel Mountain.


This tree reminds me that we do what we must to grow.


Here it is from the other side.  And sometimes we do what we must just to survive.


These trees at Deep Run Park in Richmond where I go to rest my computer-weary eyes after work, accommodate each other.


I stopped to admire this wolf there when a woman running by shouted at me, "That wolf is always there!"  Still, I did not feel that I too needed to run.


In my part of the Appalachians, we have had more rain this summer than ever before.  Low clouds barely hug the mountain on my return from the grocery store.


Still, it has made a deeply green summer and for some lovely evening skies.