The many greedy layers of the forest canopy in Shakerag Hollow gobble the light. It is darker at ground level now than it is in mid-winter. Most understory plants are in hunker-down-and-sip mode.

One or two species, though, know that the forest hosts summer-warmed bees. In sunflecks on the forest floor, these blooms burn holes in the daylong gloam.

Tall bellflower, Campanula americana.

White Avens, Geum canadense.

And, yet more brightness, students from Sewanee’s Young Writers’ Conference, taking a saunter, learning a few tales from the woods. Listening on all sides, perhaps, and filtering. Peering with me through the dim light.