MOuting: Shaw Nature Reserve

William Wordsworth will be narrating this post. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 

When all at once I saw a crowd, 

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 

Continuous as the stars that shine 

And twinkle on the milky way, 

They stretched in never-ending line 

Along the margin of a bay: 

Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 

The waves beside them danced; but they 

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: 

A poet could not but be gay, 

In such a jocund company: 

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought 

What wealth the show to me had brought: 

photo credit: Em

photo credit: Em

photo credit: Em

 Sweet Rose, helping AJ

photo credit: Em 

 Sweet Jay, chasing down Amber [again] for me.

 Em and her cute Steve

 Sweet Rose, helping Chase.

This place was dreamy. 

We lingered past naptime.

 photo credit: Em

photo credit: Em

photo credit: Em

Rose's foot got super stuck in this tree, and we had to take off her shoe to get her down.

 These golden-haired sisters.

For oft, when on my couch I lie 

In vacant or in pensive mood, 

They flash upon that inward eye 

Which is the bliss of solitude; 

And then my heart with pleasure fills, 

And dances with the daffodils.

poetry credit: William Wordsworth, I wandered lonely as a cloud 

photo credit: Em

photo credit: Em

Thank you, William. I'll take it from here.

Missouri: Saturday, March 18th. When I was in seventh grade, I memorized Wordsworth's daffodil poem. The only time I think of it is when I see a bunch of daffodils, and the entire time we were at Shaw Nature Preserve, I was trying to remember past the first four lines. I had to look it up later to get them straight. This was the biggest host of uncultivated daffodils that I've ever seen. They really do grow in crowds--I prefer them that way, rather than in long straight lines. It's amazing that the delicate yellow flowers could push up through the course, tangled grass in that field, but they fought their way up and out, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

It was a 20 minute drive from la casa Broadbent to Shaw Nature Reserve, one of my favorite spots in eastern Missouri. We packed a picnic and stayed for three hours enjoying the early springtime beauty. The longer we lingered, the mellower the day became. First it was chilly with a harsh neck-freezing breeze. Then the sun started warming up the air and when we wandered into the daffodil field, it was warm, mellow, and almost as buttery-yellow as Em's pictures.

Wandering around natural areas while the kids free-form and roam is one of my favorite things to do with my family. At times seven cousins running in opposite directions got a tad overwhelming, but nobody got lost for too long, Amber never made it all the way into the water, and we left on a tired-happy-seven-chaotic-kids nature high from all of that beauty.