Speaker 1: 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 King of this forest. Oh,
it's got a king, and this little green bird will
tell you I am king. Ernie sits about twenty three
twenty four feet up off the forest floor, overlooking the beautiful.
Speaker 2: Trees, the lake, the creek. He sees it all. He
is the king of the forest, and on a cool
day like this one forty five degrees, I usually don't
open up the drapes so that Ernie can see his forest.
The king he awaits, but the King doesn't like to wait.
He wants to look out at all the crows. He
wants to see all the squirrels, the hawks, the owls.
He'll shout at anybody, especially the deer when they come
very very close, even though he's twenty three to twenty
four feet above the forest floor, doesn't matter. He's the king.
He's got his own protection, and it's himself. He's the
one that sounds off the alarm. And if you don't
believe me, the part of the forest he can't see
is that that leads to it, the roads, the people
walking on paths outside his viewing area. He's the king
because he can hear them talking, and he gets angry
because who dareth walk on his forest floor? This is mine?
The king, a little green bird, a blue crown conyer
that thinks this is his forest. And whatever you do,
don't disrupt his day of play if it means the
human has got to get up, turn the heat up,
and allow him to see outside, because who needs the
drapes when the king wants to see his trees? Hi, Merril,
thanks for being part of the conversation.