A Drive
Today we took a drive down to Detroit Lakes for a coffee. The rolling hill and lake country of east-central Minnesota is a favorite of mine. I wanted to show my wife as well as be filled with the happy feeling I get in more tree filled landscapes. I've always had a notion of having a place in the country here, although the reality of every affording it is a chimeric dream.
On our return, we stopped in a Buffalo River State Park. I hadn't been to this little tall grass prairie riparian gem since probably elementary. The park is bordered by Nature Conservancy land as well as a Minnesota State Moorhead science center that interestingly boasts an observatory. We walked the roughly two mile loop that crosses the rocky river bed twice. There are three landscapes: the visual, aural and scent. Each of these landscapes come together to form a complete whole that soothes and restores human physiology that evolved with it.
There is something pleasing about the visual landscape of knurled burr oak trees, white barked softwoods and towering cottonwoods set alongside a strbed filled with interesting rocky protrusions. Combine this green with the auditory sensation of water babbling gently over rocks, the gentle rotation and quaking of cottonwood and aspen leaves and the song of various birds. The third track that lays on top of it all is that of smell. The pleasant earthy must of moisture, plants and decay in the understory of the trees and the indescribable smell of a cottonwood releasing its seeds.
A great day.
On our return, we stopped in a Buffalo River State Park. I hadn't been to this little tall grass prairie riparian gem since probably elementary. The park is bordered by Nature Conservancy land as well as a Minnesota State Moorhead science center that interestingly boasts an observatory. We walked the roughly two mile loop that crosses the rocky river bed twice. There are three landscapes: the visual, aural and scent. Each of these landscapes come together to form a complete whole that soothes and restores human physiology that evolved with it.
There is something pleasing about the visual landscape of knurled burr oak trees, white barked softwoods and towering cottonwoods set alongside a strbed filled with interesting rocky protrusions. Combine this green with the auditory sensation of water babbling gently over rocks, the gentle rotation and quaking of cottonwood and aspen leaves and the song of various birds. The third track that lays on top of it all is that of smell. The pleasant earthy must of moisture, plants and decay in the understory of the trees and the indescribable smell of a cottonwood releasing its seeds.
A great day.
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