Planetwalk Day Three 2015

          Walking was a lot easier today. I thought there was a lot of dust blowing around but in retrospect that just means I need to take a nice shower.

          I was talking and walking with Carlie (aka. Curly). I found out that she was a big-time photographer and wanted to take photos all day that day. I would be shadowing a pro today. We did a lot of lingering. Wherever there was a group of people, we were there to document it. Such is the life and time of a person that was in interested in the way that people saw and interacted with their environment.

          We got a complaint' that we went taking any time to paint or draw pictures. Something that the planet walker did was draw and write little haiku about what he saw on his travels. They are littered throughout his books aptly titled Planetwalker. I didn't think I [personally] did things like that ...but apparently I do. I've got this habit where I saw people on the train when while going to and fro. Some of the best ones happen in the morning on my way to my high school in Williamsburg (that was when I was in NYC). John too had done that. Now we were going to take a drawing break

          There is a barn in our path and we'll use that as our stopping path. It is a windbreak for us. All the chill slipped out of the air as we enjoyed the sun in its full glory. The air was warmer and started a gentle simmering on my skin. I decided to take off my layer of sweats to fully appreciate the life-giving warmth. The trademark barn red faded away blurring into a mahogany colored wood. The wash appeared to be painted by a skilled artisan. Planetwalkers take their time allowing nature to seep into their papers. Some use paints, others pens and pencils.

The soft sky is aptly punctuated with listless clouds each smoothly sailing dragging their transformed shadows across the ground.

          Leaving the barn with Carlie, I walked on. Eventually, I came across a young man (definitely over twenty (and according to a fellow Planetwalker, quite handsome)) and his father. They were the first people I had seen out during that day. They were doing something together and I was intrigued. They turned out to be moving gravel back in place. During the winter shoveling, they had inadvertently moved the gravel off of the driveway. today they were spreading it out again so their [dirt] driveway would be more protected from rainfall impact and not flow away with the rain that was expected the coming Friday. They turned out to be Dutch. They had loved the tranquil space that the outback offered. 

          There was a guy driving an ATV in a field of what was corn the previous year. The soil was tilled the previous year with a disk plow. The silage was half under the soil with little pieces sticking up.  He was planting new water drainage tiles and also placing GPS tags into the soil so he could find them later. Great idea!

          Back on the road. I broke from my walking partner curly. Carlie and picked up the Planetwalker's son, Luke Francis. We ended up walking up to catch up with his dad.

          We walked forwards. There wasn't much to talk about. Luke is eight years at the time and he didn't really feel the whole walking thing. He was saying that running would be better to do. “It got to there faster" he said. There was a different mindset. John started his walk after seeing an oil spill. His son, on the other hand, hasn't felt the same drive to walk. (funny word choice there aye?)

marching on...

I end dropping Luke off at the next group. The done after his dad. I returned to my pace on and trudged ahead. I had wanted to walk with someone the entire time to avoid something that happened last year. During the 2014 planet walk, I had gone at my own pace.

What happens at Shilvio pace
-   A chance to observe tree stands and their staccato-like nature on the landscape-   Silence-   A kind of walking cruise control