Recently I mentioned how I wanted to create a walking path on my property and that one of the potential destinations for the path was the big rock at the front of my property. Here is a picture of that rock.
To get to this rock, you must either cross the Sometimes Stream or walk across an area with a lot of poison ivy. That is why I had never gone to it before. One of those issues has temporarily cleared itself up, though. The weather has been so dry that there’s no stream right now, nor even any lingering mud, so you can simply walk across the dry bed.
Granted such easy access, I decided one day earlier this week to finally visit the rock. Approaching it from this direction, the only way to get to the top was to climb it. That task was made significantly easier by this interesting tree.
Climbing wasn’t difficult, and the poison ivy was conveniently sparse along that side. The rock was just high enough that when I got to the top I felt like I was above the world.
At the top, toward the front, there are loose rocks (boulders, really). They’ve been there for a long time and might be stable. Then again, they might not be, so for safety’s sake that area will have to be off-limits. The only part anyone would be allowed on is the back, where there’s this pleasant, somewhat grassy area.
I’ve told you this tale of discovery as if I had been all on my own, but that’s not quite how it happened. I climbed the rock first by myself to see what it was like. But then Marshall begged me to take him up there, and since it had seemed safe enough, I did. My husband joined us at the top, and we talked about what we should do with this unused patch of land. Then Livia came out of the house and wanted to climb up, so I had to go back down and show her how to get to the top without covering herself in poison ivy. I actually ended up climbing that rock three times!
As for the plans discussed at the top, my husband says he’s going to remove the fallen tree and the poison ivy. Then we will add some things, such as…
- Staggy: Staggy is our oversized outdoor Christmas stag. If we put him up there and lit him up, he’d be visible from the road. People passing by on winter nights might see him and think merry thoughts. We had been thinking of doing this anyway, and it would be an even simpler matter if there were already a pathway leading up.
- Our old fake Christmas tree: why not let it serve for a few years outdoors before it goes to the landfill? It would look great next to Staggy.
- A picnic table: if we mulched out a square of that grassy area, it would be a perfect spot for a picnic table.
- Other fun things: statuary, fairy houses, etc. It’s my little hill, so I can make it as tacky as I want 😉 .
So now we have a more detailed plan. Everybody loves the plan and is eager to make it happen. The kids would be up there right now if we’d let them. “Soon,” I told them, and I hope that that was the truth.