I lived in my house for ten years before discovering the other world that is not half a mile from my front door.
Ten years! How does that happen? How did I not know?
Just a few hundred yards from my own front door is the trailhead that dips into an arroyo full of ancient oaks, a burbling stream and meadows filled with flowering cactus.
It’s just a small matter of taking the three right turns at certain forks in the road, and you’ve found your way to Narnia.
The network of paths and trails are part of the Arroyo Trabuco trail that runs from the mountains toward the ocean. Our neighborhood abutts the southern part of the trail.
In the spring when the mustard seed flowers bloom in a pulsating yellow explosion, it’s shocking to think that this small hidden valley can’t be seen from above.
How many springs did I sit checking my email and miss this?
We go often now, noting the subtle seasonal changes that are so much harder to see from the streets above. For the time we are there, we pretend we are somewhere else. Somewhere without nail salon filled strip malls and drive through burger joints.
Every time I go down there I am taken by how quick and easy it is to slip in and out of this other world.
This seems magical.
I’m subscribe to your posts through e-mail, and I just love it. Every time I receive a post it is such a present. I read over the old posts, finding new nuggets in the images and words that I maybe forgot or maybe didn’t see the first time — a lot like traveling to the same place multiple times! Thanks, and please keep it coming. Can’t wait to see what’s in store this winter through your eyes!
Thanks for reading – even though you were “there” too! 🙂