Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.
I am the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned
out in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if
it wasn't for this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's time that you get to
know what has inspired me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of
the conversation. Welcome back to the forest. The birds inside this forest.
I'm on this path pretty far from the house right now, but I'm just
listening to the morning doves with their soft cooing. There are two woodpeckers out
here. I know what they're doing. You know, there's bugs in there,
there's nutrients. It's how they survive. But the sound of that rat
a tat tat tat, rat tat tat tat tat, it's life to me
in this forest. It's very, very natural, And even the sound of
the little sparrows. They get inside your head and heart and you're taught lessons,
the lessons of why human do you find yourself more indoors than outdoors when
being out here you could actually listen to the flow of the stream and not
just think it's slow moving and moving to a gigantic lake. But hearing how
birds work is amazing to me. Inside this forest, just up the path
here, maybe about three hundred feet is a gentleman who is a bee farmer.
I love it when he comes up to me every year. And it's
not that he forgets. He knows what he's doing. He will look at
me in the eyes and say, how's that apple tree? Apple tree is
looking good, sir, I'm waiting for some blossoms right now. You're welcome.
And you know, the first time that I heard him say that,
I didn't understand what he was saying. But in this forest, he knows
that his bees are coming into my part of the world of this forest,
and it's given me the flowers, and my god, when those trees start
to blossom later on with the flowers, you're gonna sit there and you're gonna
wonder, how is this even possible? Okay, I'm gonna credit the man
who has the honeybeest. And by the way, usually in the very early
days of the fall, his honey's up for sale. Yeah, right here
in this forest and he markets it to so many people. So much life,
the birds today, the cooling of the dove, the woodpecker just hammer
in his head a man. If it were me, I would have broke
my nose off the first time. He thanks for being a part of the conversation.