Day 361: The Pacific Northwest is hobbit country. I walk through the old forest on a daily basis, following its twisting paths, scrambling among its verdure for mushrooms in the autumn, my hair tangled with moss and lichen. It is a homey place, this woods of oxalis and fern; fir and hemlock and vine maple are interlaced in a canopy which only the strongest sunlight pierces. I love walking here, surrounded by the hues most pleasing to my mind and eyes. If Tolkien did not set his hobbits here, I have yet to see a more likely place.
