Teeny Pies

Water has never really been my thing. I suppose I don’t mind looking at it, or sitting by it, but I definitely don’t enjoy getting in it. I don’t like the feeling of being wet, and having to wear a bathing suit is just the worst. Which is why winter water is so appealing. There is no pressure to submerge myself and have a good time. Instead I can put on extra layers to go visit winter water, and enjoy the quiet that comes with a place deserted.

A few days ago Mo and I went to Walden Pond, which turned into a lovely little daycation. I had baked a few teeny pies earlier in the week, with the express purpose to take pictures of them about town. We could not have anticipated how ready Walden Pond was to have teeny pies visit.

It was as though Thoreau had been waiting years and years to have a pie in his hands. He’s so contemplative about that little lattice pie, as only Thoreau can be. I imagine if he’d had the opportunity to eat a teeny pie while on his exodus away from society the title of his book may have varied ever so slightly. Walden Pie, perhaps.

We wandered around the chilly pond, greeting the few other people who seem to enjoy winter water as much as I do. There seems to be an unspoken code about greeting other nature walkers. I have never had the urge to greet people while waking around the city, aside from the occasional awkward half smile because I’ve stared at someone too long and been caught out. But there is something about being on a walk around a pond, or up a mountain, or in a forest that requires a change in social acknowledgement. Suddenly, we are interested in how other people’s walks are going, and amid the “hi, how are you’s” and the “how’s it going’s” we discovered just how perfectly teeny pies and nature get along.

It’s apparently a Walden Pond tradition to leave a rock near the site where Thoreau’s small hut was. Some people leave rocks they have picked up along the walk, and some people have rocks specially made for the trip. We left our own kind of tribute to the lovely literate, transcendentalist writer.