I managed not to slip on any of the snow or ice, but a tree root took me down! Felix was not bothered. Charlie was very alarmed and ran back to me with his hackles up. I was relatively unscathed except for a bruise on my knee and a scrape on my knuckle— which is still healing as I write this almost two weeks later!

It’s prescribed burn season in the sandhills. Controlled burns are an integral part of forest management and necessary for the growth of the longleaf pines. Even though I know this, it can still be unsettling to see huge clouds of smoke rising in the sky. That has to be an evolutionary feature of being a human, right? But the fires make way for spring and for growth.

On this day, I was also thinking about how I live so much of my life in a little 2-4 block radius. I really love all the characters that I see every day and it’s comforting to remember that I’m part of the ecosystem.