Around the Cabin and Beyond

We arrived at our cabin on Chippokes Plantation

around late afternoon on a Friday.

We didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised.

The architecture was very simple, with painted board walls and ceilings.

One of the original chimneys was left intact inside,

as were these uneven pine floor planks throughout:

 The view from the cabin was enchanting:

This black cherry tree was right outside the back door.

The branches were full of unripened black cherries:

We walked around and explored before it got dark.

We saw a wild turkey at the edge of the woods:

The turkey is in the photo, but with its bronze feathers,

it is virtually undetectable in the shadow of the tree line.

Nature's wisdom, I guess.

This was an odd specimen,

reminiscent of the shadbush sprouts I wrote about recently:

And this unusual lichen

covering the ground a little further down Cedar Lane.

And these tree branches entwined in an embrace:

The shadows began to lengthen as the sun went down.

Our cabin seemed far away in the fading light:

We left Cedar Lane and set out along the fence line to see what we could see.

We followed the edge of the woods a long way before crossing the field,

careful not to step on the cotton seedlings coming up through the soil:

The day was dimming as we got closer to our cabin.

The thickets and the woods appeared deep and dark,

but the setting sun still illumined the tree tops.

Tomorrow we will visit the James River beach

and the cypress grove that lives there.

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