Today is not my running day, so I went for a long walk in the woods. Last night we had a storm, with 96km winds and lots of rain. Today is mostly dry, but the winds and rain brought down more leaves. The walk was fragrant with scents of pine, nuts, soil, and firs lifting in the air. It was a beautiful experience, cool enough for a warm sweater. I also saw a big blue heron (did not catch a photo of it because it flew off too soon) and some kind of blue kingfisher, probably a belted kingfisher, which also flew off too quickly! I am going to take the good camera out soon, with a zoom lens, and try to get some of these birds on film. Often that happens when silently birdwatching rather than hiking and making too much noise.
I also listened to some more Lore podcast episodes, including episode 5, “Under Construction.” It has some neat elf, or Huldufólk, folklore. It really gave me ideas on where I’m going with both my research and novel.
