Well let me be frank with you, I got lost. And yes, I know we were out there to clean up and remove all the trash out of the trees, but there was something in the air. It was Saturday afternoon. The air freshened my cheeks, puppy bit my nose, and frosted my ears. The abundance of trees, gave off an indescribably breathtaking scent that invited all creatures out to play. A couple of leaves covered the ground but the rest, the ones in the trees, just let the right amount of light seep through. There was also a creek! Water, tumbling over rocks and pebbles that continued on a path until it hit the ocean. It was picturesque.

So our group split and wandered off into the forest picking up trash. I didn't watch the trails, I just ambled down the trails looking at rabbits and the birds huddled close together in their nests. I was walking around in a haze, when I was startled by a crunch. I jumped to see a woman. She was beautiful but not in the normal sense. She had a glow about her that could not be captured on film. Dark wooden unruly hair cascaded down her back almost all the way to ground. She wore a wheat colored top with a pond green skirt that covered her feet. She had the most intense Caribbean blue eyes and sandstone skin with rose colored cheeks.

"I'm sorry I startled you," her gravelly voice uttered.

"It's okay, I am just looking at that owl." I exclaimed. The woman steps closer to me and looks up to where I was gazing.

"Oh, yes that is a barred owl," explains the woman.

"What do they eat?"

"Well they are like most owls; they eat rats and other small mammals."
All of a sudden the owl made a hiss that could burn flesh.

"We best be on our way," said the woman, "she thinks that we want her babies." As we left I could just barely see this puffball pop his head out.

"Wow," I said as we walked away, "how did you see the baby? I've been looking at it for an hour and I didn't see it."

"I just knew," the woman replied.

We ended up walking around for three hours. It turned out that the woman was a full of knowledge on anything and everything nature related. She was patient with my dim witted knowledge and she even helped pick up garbage. She said, "Helping you is like helping myself."
It was around five when the sun began to set and I started to panic.
"Oh My Gosh, I need to get back. I have to meet the group in like five minutes!"

"Do not worry," she said musically, "We are already here, it is just at the end of the trail." She pointed her twig fingers to the bend in the trail and I started to run.

I tumbled into Nick, the leader of this clean up.

"Hey there, where did you go? No one has seen you all afternoon, I thought you must have gotten lost," he utters.

"Oh I was just walking around looking at nature and this lady told me all these cool things about animals and plants. Did you know that Owls eat mi-"

"Slow down, what lady are you talking about? The park was closed down today for the clean up."

"That lady," I said pointing behind me only to find trees and bushes. "But... But"

"Whatever," Nick pronounced, "there is some hot chocolate in the cabin for the volunteers for all of your hard work. I am going to make sure no one else is lost."

And that was that. I returned almost every Saturday to look for the nature lady but have never seen her again. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn she was Mother Nature herself