Following Phoebe and Xiangyang from the foot of the mountain, we were immediately 'awed' by a stick insect, a stink bug, and a spotted-thighed grasshopper in turns. Fortunately, winter isn't peak season for insects. For the rest of the way, besides the Trichonephila clavata and the oothecae of the Chinese mantis, no more scary bugs appeared.
Along the way, I tasted mustard-flavored nasturtium; smelled the resin of the Yunnan poplar; crunched on an unripe buckwheat; took apart 'Lego-like' scouring rush and clipped it to my eyebrows; saw a bubbling spring; rubbed the leaves of blue gum, Szechuan pepper, mugwort, and lemongrass in my hands; carefully learned the differences between stinging nettle and ramie; saw the rampant Crofton weed and the galls from its natural enemy, the Eupatorium gall fly... taking notes frantically all the way.
But the happiest part was encountering a quiet stick insect 'model' that stayed perfectly still on my arm for 5 minutes until I finished drawing it. As someone who is terrified of bugs, it's hard to imagine that one day I would genuinely find an insect cute (perhaps personality determines fate; 'I' people and 'I' bugs have some resonance).
Walking in the mountains on a sunny day, listening to Phoebe and Xiangyang patiently introduce the plants we passed, watching an elderly couple in our group take photos with great enthusiasm, and picking up colored pencils after a long time to draw what I saw and heard—five hours passed slowly and immersively, leaving a quiet and beautiful trace in my heart.
When I return to the city, I must also maintain my curious eyes~