Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This
is Forest Stories. I'm 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 morning after
winter Storm Cora, a lot of ice and snow. A
lot of people afraid because it's been three years since
we've had a storm like this hit this area, especially
this forest. But to be in this forest this morning,
to see the ice on the leafless limbs, to hear
the waters it falls to the earth, that is just saying,
give me something more to sip on. The snow will
melt away. It always does very quickly here in the South,
especially in this forest. But every step that I take,
I've going to watch it. Because you know, black ice
is black ice. It's more than just being something you
find on the road. It's actually in a forest as well.
But I wish you could just hear the drops. It's
almost like it's raining with no clouds in the sky.
There's so much peace in here. The ground is just
so saturated, and the trees are going. Thank you so much,
because you know what happens every year, the bugs collect
inside the trees. I would say, now the cicadas that
were here over the summer, they're gone. The remnants are
now officially gone because the ice has washed them away.
Now you may not remember this, but a couple of
weeks ago on Forest Stories, I was talking about how
the squirrels were preparing, and I found it very interesting
that on that very very cold day, the squirrels were
working extra hard and rebuilding their nests high, high, high
in the trees. Is it possible that those squirrels knew
that winter Storm Cora was on the way, because today
it's perfectly beauty fall. Sure it's still cold, but it's
going to warm up, and the squirrels have got to
be sitting inside those homes going I knew what I
was doing a couple of weeks ago. It just takes
a little bit of preparation. In fact, if you look
up the story the Native American spirituality, story of the squirrels.
They are creatures of being prepared. They know what to do.
They listen. They're so close to the ground that they
can hear the vibrations of the planet, so when Mother
Earth is speaking and they're listening, it helps them during
things like winter Storm Coral. But today it's like a
brand new day, fresh out of the package. The sun
is so bright, the ice on the tree limbs so beautiful. Hey,
thanks for being a part of the conversation.