Discovery in the Woods

I love visiting our relatives in East Texas. As soon as we get close, I start relaxing and feel at home. My mom inherited some land there, and on holidays, we all take the bumpy ride through the woods. Eventually my parents want to build a house on the land, but right now there aren't roads, and it's overgrown and wild. Which I happen to love, by the way. When I'm in the middle of the tall trees, all I can hear is the wind rustling the leaves. It is the closest thing to heaven I can imagine.

So after Thanksgiving, my family went to visit the land again. It's been colder in Texas this year (it even snowed yesterday!), and the maple trees were bursting with color. Berries, walnuts, and pine cones covered the ground, among the overgrown grasses and weeds. It was a lovely mess.

I went exploring in one section of trees and discovered two old glass jars half buried in the ground. One was small, but the other was larger and filled with plants. As I looked closer, I noticed the jar had a fern growing inside of it, and the soil and moss had plugged up the opening, creating a terrarium right there in the woods! It was strange, because there were no ferns anywhere else to be found outside- just in that old one gallon glass jar. I was so excited about this curious finding, in the middle of nowhere. I carried around my prize while the kids tried to skip stones in the pond.

I was a little hesitant to clean the jar, fearing that some small creature might have taken up residence. But I finally did it this afternoon, and now it looks lovely. So I have my first terrarium, discovered in the woods of my future inheritance. A nice little surprise ending to a great Thanksgiving!