It is morning. The birds are chirping. They make an amazing amount of noise. They are louder than the cars outside. I live in a small apartment above the home of a young couple. They have two little boys, an old dog, and a puppy. They have a gigantic yard. Across the street is a unpainted brown barn that has a windmill and a bunch of logs lying next to it. We live at the top of a hill with a decent view.

The trees are blooming. They have the same colors they will in the fall only in more muted shades. Many of them have flowers in them. The grass has turned from yellow to green in last couple of weeks as the temperatures have gone up.

I'm a bit of an odd nut to be living in a place like this. I'm an introverted intellectual living in a tightly knit community where for the most part people are more practically oriented. But the land and the people are part of me. I love the rolling hills with their pastoral fields of green and forests of maples and pines. I love the curving country roads and the yard sales. I love and I need this landscape.

Because my family was poor and very large, I never went anywhere as a child. The most I travelled away from home before turning eighteen was about 100 miles. I went to college in a place that was flat and it was tough for my mind to adjust. The only place that you don't see hills rising around you in my home is on the top of a hill. My mind kept expecting to see those hills. Part of me kept thinking that if I just went a little further I would come over the ridge and see the gorgeous vista I grew up with around me again. It was very disorienting and because it doesn't seem to be anything anyone has written about at length I had no way of figuring out what was going on.

I've also lived in a big city. It's nice with all things you can do. But every few weeks I would need to get out and find some place with a lot of trees.

So anyway, yesterday I did not, as I claimed I would, spend the day sleeping. My daughter and I went for a five mile hike in a county park. Trees - pines, spruces, maples, oaks. Sounds - birds, babbling streams, my own breathing, the buzzing of curious insects zipping around my face, and the occasional distant noise of other hikers. The sky - blue and clear- hidden mostly by the trees but occassionally visible when we emerged into a small clearing or a fire access road. The hike wasn't long enough to leave me tired today, but it felt good to build up a decent sweat.

That'll do it. Have to take my crazy mom out to dinner today.