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

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is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

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a 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. Very cold forest today, so

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cold that it's actually amazingly calm. Nothing's really moving except

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for the squirrels. The squirrels are playing around with their homes.

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They're rebuilding the walls of those tree homes. They're taking

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nuts up to those homes. It's almost like you're saying,

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you got to get prepared. Human are you watching? Nothing

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else is moving, but we are. Because it's going to

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get cold, and it's going to get even maybe nasty

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with some rain and snow. But you got to get prepared.

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Watching nature in this forest has been one of the

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greatest learning lessons that I've had since I've been here

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since nineteen ninety two. To take the time to just

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sit down and become aware of nature and how nature

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moves through these trees and around the water. The deer

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are usually plentiful this time of day, but they're nowhere

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to be seen. Are they laying in areas where they're

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keeping warm? Because it's cold in this forest today, very cold.

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Usually the bucks are out, they're traveling from one side

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of the forest to the other, not a fear in

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their eyes at all. And the dough they're always protecting

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the young ones that they had this past season, and

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they're not even around. But the squirrels always working hard,

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always rebuilding that nest. And I do wonder sometimes if

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I I could step inside the home of a squirrel,

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would I too find warmth? What is it they're creating

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in there? And do they use mud? They're so high

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up there you can't reach them. Those beautiful squirrels nests.

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It's almost like a beehive of sorts. You can count

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them on several different trees, several different families in their

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own little community, working hard on a very cool day

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in this forest. Hey, thanks for being a part of

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the conversation.