A Place of One's Own

The floor is red oak and cherry leaf, a soft, green moss throw rug sits in the middle and a tiny red cedar sapling sits off to one corner--she doesn't say much. The roof is sky and rustling oak leaves.This is a room of my own, a place of my making with the help of Mother Nature.

I didn't know it at the time, but my search for "place" began with a chair. An old rocker I bought years ago that began rotting by Marie's studio, I dragged up to the woods for a place to sit. To hunt. Hunting gave me and it a purpose. I sat in the morning and evening in my plaid wool shirt and Stormy Kromer after stringing my bow (it took four tries to string it!)

Hunting in the "chair" gave me a purpose to hit the woods, leave the trail and work and dishes behind. I had searched for a place to sit and under the big cherry tree was a start. I tried that for a few days, but it didn't feel right, too exposed--no matter how many branches I piled around it. My eyes kept crossing the trail to the woods. A natural place to hide.

But stubbornly I moved my chair up the hill behind the cherry. Between two pines--one red and the other white--it sat. This was nice. Cozy. I'm a pine girl. But still didn't feel right. Then the next morning I saw her--a doe stepped out into the predawn right past the area I had contemplated--the place across the trail from the cherry.

It took a few days for the idea to strike my mind, but while the girls watched football last Saturday I went exploring. I had an idea. I found the old deer blind that had been collapsed on the ground under brush for as long as I can remember since living here. It was a place where I thought animals lived. No recent tracks though. It had also been a place I went to pout and throw myself on--watching for rusty nails. I lifted one corner expecting the wood to crumble. It didn't.

It was perfect. I would resurrect the old deer blind. Unsafe, rusty nailed, rotted boards decorated by Mother Nature. Dirt, fungus and spider web held cherry and oak leaf glued in place on the boards. A natural collage. Most of the boards were still sturdy and HEAVY it was. I stood up the walls. The first wall had a hinged door still attached. This was my support wall. Then I stood the other and leaned them against each other much like a house of cards with the help and support of two oak trees.

I was too excited. It made a nice blind to hide and watch the wild world in. I had always loved my father's deer blind in Mio--seeing the world through rectangular windows, cropping and composing nature in a pleasing way. I tossed in a camp chair from the RV and voila! I was set. Rickety home, sweet, home.

Seed and nut gift for critters

Stomping out at 7 a.m. a few days ago I ran into a buck staring at me in the trail. Whoops! Too late. The end of hunting for the morning. But I did have a friendly chickadee visit me hopping around on my hat. So the next day I went out at 6:15 a.m. at 29 degrees it was chilly cold--but sit I did for two hours. No wildlife. Chickadee stopped by but didn't stay. So yesterday I took seed out for chickadee and a dream-catcher I got in the mail. When I hung the catcher inside, it dawned on me. A room of my own! A sit place for sketching. My place has an double oak sentinel door, mossy welcome mat and all.

For as long as this structure stands, this will be my special fort or clubhouse. A place to create, hunt, listen, pout if I have to or just sit with nature and enjoy. A natural room with a natural view. I will sit and sketch life here as the seasons pass. The window frames and holds ever changing art and offers me a look at Hawthorne and Cherry, Oak and Pine neighbors as I sip coffee.

Cherry tree view with path to  my "place"