Maria got up at 6:30 this morning to prepare for her guided tour in the woods of central New York. She’s meeting Zach Fisher, a nature guide in a land preserve.

She wants to know more about tracking, trees, wildflowers, and fungus. She marched out with a backpack, a bottle of water, flea and tick medicine, a sandwich, and her Iphone.

This guided nature tour, which will last about four hours, was a belated birthday president.

Her novel nature and the woods have steadily deepened and are a part of her art,  and she is hungry to learn more about the natural world.

She’ll be home later this afternoon. Zach is an accomplished natural and tracker. A good match, I think. Soon after she left, I got a pretty hot fever and needed to lie down.