Michigan Forest Life - September 30, 2025

Good morning, friends,

Sunrise is a motion picture, ever changing until it evaporates into the morning of a new day

(Photo 1). It is a new beginning. A new start. A new birth. 

This morning I am again in the forest of Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary. The Treehouse. A new start. A new beginning.

What do you think of pine trees in the fall? They keep their green color while other trees take on colorful splashes of orange, red, yellow, and brown. Sometimes purple. The other trees transform and then, often in a strong breeze, the colorful leaves parachute to the ground, making a beautiful mosaic of the forest floor. 

Did you know pine trees also drop leaves - needles from the year before - in the fall? But by then a new batch of green needle growth has already been developing at the end of each

branch since spring, as the branch extends a bit longer with the new needles. It is the evergreen you see. The new needles will turn brown and be blown off in the wind next year. So in August when a pine looks a bit brown behind its natural evergreen, perhaps looking like something may be wrong, wait until the needles fall. It is the normal pattern. 

When I walked up the circular staircase to the treehouse deck yesterday evening, the surface was covered with a fresh batch of pine straw (Photo 2). Brown pine needles. I could, and probably will, sweep the deck clean. I did so every day last week, only to have it again covered later the same day. At this time of year there is no keeping up with pine needles under a pine tree. A clean deck is a human thing. The forest floor below is the natural way. A thick, soft blanket of pine needles covers everything.

This week I will to begin including a weekly PREVIEW SNIPPET from my upcoming book, FOREST LEGEND: THE TALE OF OL' SPLIT TOE. (Photo 3). There will be 27 of these teasers -

one per week until the publication date of March 31, 2026. They will be presented in a way that progresses through the story line, introduces a few of the characters, and gives the flavor of the book. 

I would like to thank the people who read the manuscript in advance and wrote words of praise for FOREST LEGEND. One quote from the advance readers will be included after each snippet. ENJOY!

I wish you a healthy pine tree and a blanket of fall pine straw. 

Until next time,

Dan

Snippet 1 of 27:

Excerpt from Chapter 1

AD 1409 - Split Toe breathed in slowly, searching for the predator’s scent. Damp, warm air pulled in through leathery nostrils at the end of his long snout. A breeze blowing through the thicket carried with it the musty aroma of decay. Fallen leaves. Stagnant water and rotting wood. But something else was there too. Was it the hint of smoke humans carried with them from their campfires? Or the dried blood that always clung to a cougar’s pelt? Perhaps the stale, sweaty scent of a wolf? What had the doe seen?

Copyright @ 2025 by Daniel S. Ellens

Presale Release date: November 25, 2025

Publication Date: March 31, 2026

Praise for FOREST LEGEND:

“Ol’ Split Toe, the majestic, time-traveling deer, takes us on a magical ride through ancient forests, the land of the First People, colonial settlement and deforestation, and modern times.   An epic adventure story that will transform how you look at our land, and inspire you to conserve it.” – Bill Gleason, Author and Tree Naturalist, West Hartford, CT.