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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I'm the Poet in the Forest, a

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children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

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none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

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this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the forest. Springtime in this forest. I

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really don't know why people mow their lawns. Seriously, I

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really don't, because if they would let things grow naturally,

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they would take note of the tiniest, most beautiful flowers,

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purple yellows, deep blues. I've always been a fan of

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the dandelion, and it looks like there's little baby violets

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that are growing. Yes, the wild onions are popping up.

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It looks like hairs that are out of place on

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a man's face. But to a dog it's very attractive

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because dogs love the wild onions. But the human being,

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you know how it is, they've got to go out

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and they've got to shave their yards clean, I'm walking

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by these beautiful yellow flowers right now, but a lawnmower

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will destroy them forever. Just so tiny, and if you

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take the time to take a transition walk, then you're

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giving the opportunity to see a different side of Mother Nature.

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Queen's lace is looked upon as being a weed, but

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when you see it along the road or along a path,

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you can't help but go, my god, that is so beautiful.

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But many people they like to mow down their lawns.

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They want to have that home depot appeal that this

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is the most beautiful yard of the month, is it?

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Is it? Now? You're talking to a man here that

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shows back in the nineteen nineties to give his land

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back to the forest, basically meaning, it was really dangerous

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for me to be on a lawnmower going down that

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ninety five foot drop in my back and the erosion

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was really killing me. It was hurting me deeply. And

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the reason why I really gave it back to Mother

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Nature and to the forest was because I didn't know

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what to do with it. So that's when we planted

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seventeen hundred trees and I made it a hillside that

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has these beautiful, beautiful natural trees from North Carolina. So

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now you know my weakness. My weakness was I just

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didn't want to get killed on that lawn. More so,

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I gave it back to mother nature, who said, okay,

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we'll have fun with it. Hey, thanks for being a

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part of the conversation.