This Thanksgiving, I joined the hoards of fellow Americans skyrocketing carbon emissions by traveling around 500 miles for the holidays by car! So, unfortunately, I was not in one place for long enough to truly absorb and feel what I would have liked to in a natural space, BUT last Thanksgiving, I was able to visit such a place! My family and I were traveling for the holiday, and while in upstate New York, we stopped in Tallman Mountain State Park, in Piermont NY. It was a beautiful woody area with a great view down to the Hudson River. The trees thinned out towards the river bank to be replaced by reeds and tall dry grasses that I remember vividly. I wish we could have gone back this year, but of course, we had to travel from NJ up to CT, and then back up to VT! Fear not though, I very much enjoyed my backyard’s natural spaces, I saw a red cardinal and noticed how different my home is from Centennial woods. There are no eastern white pines, and instead, we have a tulip tree, and then a myriad of oaks and maples.
See here, down in Verona NJ, a red cardinal sitting in our dried-up but persevering Tulip Tree!
And above, we have Tallman Mountain State Park in all of its glory. Granted it was a rainy day, but I loved seeing how the stream meets the river bank, and how it meanders through the marshy area to get there. It reminds me now of the small stream through my spot at centennial. Though it’s quieter and much smaller, it still charges through the watershed, past dry grasses and bare trees.