out in the early

I love mornings. I love being awake before anyone in the house and in the world at large. The luxurious extra time afforded by going to bed early is so completely appealing to me. Who cares about late night tv anyway. I woke up early this morning... 5:30 or so, and got out of bed. We live pretty close to a beautiful state park, so I loaded Chaucer up into the truck and off we went for a very early morning walk. It was so early that the birds weren't even up to their vocal crescendo. The fog was still thick in the trees and the air was silent. This is what I love. It is intimate really. I love the closeness of atmosphere.

As I was walking along, allowing Chaucer to run wild and free down the road and in the woods, river etc, I walked up to this apple tree, because it was there, on the side of the road, with apples weighing down its branches, and low and behold, simply the biggest caterpillar I have ever seen was there tucked around one of the branches. It was beautiful really... although it did remind me of a tomato horn worm (my nemesis), but it was green and red and blue and absolutely huge!!! Maybe close to five inches long. crazy... So, I took a picture and ogled it crazily for a few minutes.

I love mornings, and today, for both me and Chauc, was a great one.

Thank you quiet,

thank you fog,

thank you solitude.