Communing with Nature
The night air wakes me just past midnight. I’m sleeping sound in the Winnie with Sami curled up in the corner nestled against my leg. I reach down and place my hand on her back, so soft, reassuring. She looks up into the silence out of the window by our bed. We are both up, just being with the night. The air is moist and cool like the wet nose of a dog. The birds are sleeping in the pine trees surrounding Winnie.
Suddenly, the looming pines and the winding sand paths running like water throughout the girl scout camp in Manistee, Michigan comes to mind. I recall the caramel-colored platform tents with canvas walls we would roll up and tie off creating the look of ‘floating’ tents all around us. Sweeping sand from the wooden floors always the first job of the day, moving our suitcases all laying at the side of each sleeping bag covered cot to clean the floor. One morning as I shifted my unzippered suitcase, I heard a noise almost like a bird’s twill. I opened the bag to find a new brood of teeny tiny baby mice born in the night. Part of me wanted to scream, but the mystery of these new lives kept me frozen with delight. Tent mates gathered around with streams of questions and curiosity, “What should we do with them? How can we save them? How do we get them out of the clothing?” a scouting treasure!
Wednesday morning, flash forward to an inch long caterpillar with lime stripes down it’s body, scooting its way along the black and white sand mat in front of the Winnie. I scoop up the little fellow placing him in a glass mason jar. Adding a few brown twigs, green leaves, and a couple water droplets, I am again mesmerized by one of God’s creatures. An hour passes as I snap pictures and a video of ‘Buddy’ and send them off to my grandson, Michael, lover of all insects and bugs and his sister, Ava. My daughter immediately responds with their questions, “what kind of caterpillar is it? Where did you find it? What will it turn into?” Researching caterpillars and wha-la, it’s a Copper Underwing Moth Caterpillar…. intriguing right?!
Camping is, communing with nature. Branches of the pine caress the sides of the Winnie. Raindrops play a song all through the night on Wednesday and into the day on Thursday. The Winnie is situated on the upside of the site with the awning extended to protect a chair and table underneath. However, the rain slides off the gutter less awning creating a well of water mixed with sand swirling everywhere. By 10:30 am on Thursday Sami had still not been out for business, an umbrella & gym shoes do little to protect but the needed outing is taken. By the time we return, Sami looks like she’s been swimming and the sand follows us into the Winnie. A trip to the store for boots is definitely in order.
The sun prevails by Friday with a scenic drive the order of the day. Picnic lunch and treats for Sami in tow we are off to the Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah, with a return route through West Tisbury; both considered part of the ‘Up-Island’ area on the west side of the Vineyard. The east side is known as ‘Down-Island.’ The seagoing term, heading “up,” a nautical reference for going west being further from zero degrees of longitude in Greenwich, England, home of the Prime Meridian and vis-versa for the east. Up-Island roads are flanked by two-foot walls of small brown & whitewashed stone boulders winding along both sides of the narrow-paved roads. Sand finger ‘blind’ roads appear under tree arbors all along the way with names like ‘Chowder Kettle Lane,’ ‘Lobsterville Rd,’ ‘Fish Hook Rd,’ and Rumpus Ridge Rd.’
There is a range of cliffs that appear at the very southwestern tip of the Vineyard just past the brick red Gay Head Lighthouse with a Red and White cap of light rotating. The beach view to the south from the hilltop is breathtaking with white curls licking at the sand for miles. Between the views on the walk to the top are a series of small cottage stores selling local artist’s creations. Just outside the stores, Sami and I find a table to share our picnic lunch and take in the spectacular views with a cool ocean breeze threatening to send my lunch sailing.
West Basin Road proves to be an incredible island ‘stop and shoot’ photo ramble. Very rural with little traffic, my emergency lights signal no-one that I am pausing every 15-20 feet to capture nature. A congregation of snow-white egrets bathing in a shallow pond on a bright green field of grass is just across the road from a committee of red headed turkey vultures at the wake of a critter. The Vineyard Sound shore peeks out from behind the low rolling sand hills with patches of white daisies and hot pink wild roses waving as I grab their image.
I pause at the West Tisbury library when I catch a glimpse of a Sculpture Garden on our way back towards Oak Bluff. Sami is thrilled to run about as I snap her picture in front of the sunlit white sculptures with pine green trees as their background. Suddenly she drops and just rolls around on the grass, much to my chagrin in a pile of brown poop! We dash behind the Field gallery to find a garden hose ready for work, I spray the brown patches from her snow-white fur, and she thinks it’s a game darting back and forth snapping at the stream of water. And we’re off to Noman’s Patio in Oak Bluff for a quick Pilsen and a romp with a lively mix of kiddos dancing around Sami. A fun finale for my faithful furry friend on this fine day communing with nature.
