Eyeblog :: Eyebuzz Fine Art, Tarrytown: If you're quiet you can see the animals

Last night was movie night, and it was really fun but the pictures weren't so good. So instead I have these from our walk today, and it got me thinking.

When I was little and my brothers were in high school they would take me for walks with them and their girlfriends in the cemetery. I know, it sounds like a weird date, but this is how I'm remembering it. They would go running in what is now the Preserve, only then it wasn't so officially open to the public. They would take off from home or drive & park on Old Sleepy Hollow Road-where everybody parks now, only then you had to just know about it. I thought it was so cool how they knew this secret way to get into the woods; then again, I probably thought everything they did was so cool. Later on, when I was in high school, we would sneak in, too, there and other spots, and hang out...but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, we didn't go for walks on the trails so much as I remember going for walks in the cemetery. I can even picture us having a picnic on the bank of the Pocantico River and swimming in the deeper pools made from the water rushing over the rocks. I don't have so many clear memories of being a kid-I don't dwell on my childhood often, the way (ahem) some people do- but when we were walking today I could summon up almost the exact feeling of being there with my brothers, probably at just about Lindsey's age.

So, I got to thinking. What will my kids remember? About this walk today and a thousand other days and things? Will they remember how the light was; what they found on the trail? Or how I kept bugging them to stop kicking up the dust, stop throwing rocks? Will they remember me holding their hand?

For a minute or two on today's walk we had all slowed down, stopped talking, and the deer came out. They looked right at us, then started towards us, slowly, keeping their eyes on us but just going about their business. The fawn kept trying to nurse and the mommy deer would nudge its nose away. It was really something to watch.