Monday's Muse: Nature and Camping! *posting a little early*

Taken at Camp Burton Vashon Island, Wa

     Last weekend I went on a camping retreat. While I enjoyed myself there, it wasn't something I was truly prepared for. I was under the impression that I'd have a lot of time for leisurely pleasures like writing and reading. Well, I did get some writing down and some reading but I mostly spent time with the other campers, hiking, boating, telling stories around the camp fire (well, I mostly listened and watched for critters on the ground in the light of the fire *shudders*) the usual camp stuff. 

     While on a hike, I came across this tree. It was the only tree along our trail that had mushrooms on it. I thought it looked out of place for some reason especially since I had not come across any others along the way or even after. Those mushrooms stuck in my mind for a long time. That night, as I settled in for some write time working on the first prompt of The Rule of Three Blog Fest, the image of the lonely patch of mushrooms popped back up in my mind and writing. Somehow, they made their way into my story! These mushrooms will play a vital role in the Renaissance Awakening.

I love nature, it is so inspiring! And now for some nature quotes :D

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
Navajo Proverb

"Trees give peace to the souls of men."
Nora Waln correspondent 1895-1964

To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.
Terry Tempest Williams

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
Robert Louis Stevenson

The moment one give close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
Henry Miller

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
President Lyndon B. Johnson