View from a fallen tree over a swamp off the trail at San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park.
Wood fairy?
Saw this on the trails in San Felasco and let out a chuckle. Maybe wood fairies are real after all?

That feeling
That feeling of a cool breeze on a warm night… Timeless.
Pale blue eyes
She forgets
cigarettes and
loses the money
Father demands
their whereabouts,
smiling with anger
Trembling in
pale blue eyes,
she doesn’t know
Father beats her
in drunken stupor,
raging against all
Mother is nowhere
to be found,
mind long gone
In school,
they see welts
and bruises
Always they see
constant sadness in
pale blue eyes
She is shuffled off
to foster home
after foster home
Often she is seen
staring out windows
pale blue eyes
Her role model is a
wayward roommate seeking
love on street corners
Overworked social workers
never truly see her
pale blue eyes
Often she walks
around town seeking
what cannot be had
For there is no love
to be found absent
father and mother
And a foster home
with more abuse and
tortured souls
Will she ever find it,
so her beautiful heart
can sing once again?
Pale blue eyes,
always walking around
looking for love.
Alley Spring mill in the Ozarks

Grist mill on very edge of Alley Spring in Missouri. The spring empties into Jacks Fork river, a National Scenic River and National Park. You can camp just south of the Mill on the river and it was a beautiful, relaxing location.
(Click to view map)
Kayak view from Bonner’s Ferry

View from my kayak on Lake Smith near Bonner’s Ferry, ID. The orangish haze is smoke from nearby forest fires making for a bit of a surreal moment. Camped near the shore for a blissful week pretty much all by myself a couple years ago.