This bird
now featherless
its coat dropped carelessly
in a pile, under a leafless tree
on a patch of washed-out grey leaves
one could hope he forgot where he left them
if not, their velvety softness will be reused in a nest
for warmth, and comfort with instructions on hunting
This bird…
posted for:
http://jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/thursday-poets-rally-week-10-march-18-march-24-2010/
This morning I stepped outside to sunshine and heavy humid air. Along the western horizon I could see dark clouds moving slowly east. Black birds were pushing aside wet leaves in an attempt to find worms that had felt the warmth and slithered to the surface. I wondered how many they actually found. Or was my guess of worms wrong and they were eating seeds, or larva. The ground was still a solid block of ice, later on I will have to crawl around and check out the area myself…
I shuffled over the leaves and the black birds scattered as I passed by.
The low area of the path had gotten muddier over night. Even now, the ice and snow melted under the glare of warm sunshine. The thick broken ice became more of an obstacle course than an uncomplicated walk. At least the ice held the sharp sticks as I slipped over them. The mud, black and slippery, allowed the one to two inches of broken and cut sticks and grass, the opportunity to puncture my boots.
Walking through this area took more time than it had yesterday. Uriah became impatient and ran on ahead. He had disappeared into the trees by the time I started walking up the slight incline. I moved south, then east, straight into the un-melted snow.
The distinct smell of skunk wafted around the trees, I glanced around and didn’t see him. I decided, that it was a smart idea to leave, while I could still taste and smell.
The birds were very vocal again today. Their songs intermingled into a sweet sound of spring. I stood next to a knocked down fence post and closed my eyes and listened.
A train was heading through the town; the wind blew straight at me from the south, bringing every clack-clack and heavy thudding sound clear as a bell into my universe. I turned on my camera and started the video; I was only able to capture a sixteen second piece of geese flying over head, before the camera flashed low battery and shut off.
Ooops! I forgot to recharge the battery last night. I slipped the camera back into its case and started walking home.
A breeze kicked up around me, low to the ground. I smiled, and looked up at the tree tops, enjoying the warmer air. Then I started to sneeze, and sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. I’m allergic to mold! When we have a heavy rain that hangs around for a few days or like today, slow melting snow… That’s when mold appears and I start sneezing, eyes watering and I sound very congested.
I stopped my trek to admire some bright green moss I had found yesterday under a tree. (I had taken a picture.) That tree had mold growing along its trunk… Oh well!
By the time I reached the house the sun had disappeared behind heavy dark grey clouds.
If it was possible it felt like the air had doubled in humidity. At least I stopped sneezing…
Yesterday, the temperatures rose high enough that the snow became heavy and started to thaw, just enough to become slippery and wet.
Twenty-four hours later, today. The snow was solid and slick with chucks of sharp ice.
The snow was so hard Uriah’s paws slid as he walked across the top without breaking through. Instead he slipped and fell. He was not amused! I tromped over to him, allowing my weight to break the top layer of snow. I moved slowly to where Uriah sat. He looked irritated at the smooth, white snow stretching out in front of him.
Stabbing my ski poles into the snow on either side of Uriah, I tried to slide him off the top of the snow bank, onto the area I packed down. When he was back on his feet/paws, Uriah glanced back at the tree he had been heading for, for a second he hesitated, sighed and made an odd grumbling, growling sound.
If Uriah had fingers I bet he would have flipped the bird at that snow bank.
Uriah made a half hearted attempt to walk behind me, then he decided to walk next to me, on that snow covered frozen path.
As we walked the sky cleared and a deep, purplish blue sat on the horizon to the east. I stopped and looked straight up. The sky was slightly hazy grey. Some low clouds moved above me, giving me a closed in feeling.
The air held an odor of pond water, fishy and green smelling. As I headed along the path a sweet, bitter smell of smoke curled around me until I reached the far back. At that point, the path turns to the north and rounds out and heads back west, towards the house. Just then, the wind picked up blowing in from the north-east, and pushed away the burning campfire smell. The air changed, I could smell cows, manure and hay.
As far as I could see, the snow covered the fields. A pattern of colors and lines weaved in and out. I looked towards the farmer’s barn; I could see cows walking slowly and dark earth pushing up between snow drifts. Grey ice covered the lower areas, frosted and untouched by the slightly warmer air.
Uriah and I reached some heavy bushes; we walked underneath them instead of around. A tiny, black headed bird, complained at our intrusion. Uriah nudged my pocket I stopped and broke a milk bone in half and handed it to him. He was happily crunching away when a stick snapped next to us, we both turned to the right.
Not more than a foot away from us was that Pheasant! His neck was stretched up high. Light grey with a dark blackish blue ring around his neck. He looked startled and scared, and he slowly backed away from us, then turned and flew into the taller trees. He missed the first branch and then started running towards the Bog Willows. He ran into a tree trunk flapping and scooting around until he disappeared into the trees.
Picture a very stupid cartoon bird!
All this took no more than a couple of minutes, both Uriah and I watched him with our mouths open, Uriah forgot his biscuit. I forgot my camera…
Insert, heavy sigh, rolling eyes, slap on forehead and Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!”
Uriah looked at me. I shrugged and he made a half hearted move to chase the bird. He took a couple of steps, then changed his mind and continued eating his biscuit.
Winter around here won’t end until April, if we are lucky.
I had a wonderful birthday! My husband took me out for a late lunch at Red Robin, their specialty is burgers. Then he bought me a camera I am trying to figure it out. Luckily, the cats are just as interested in the odd sounds it makes, as much as the wrist strap that I keep forgetting to put on my wrist. Every time I came near them they stopped and stared.
Even though I hate hair dye, it is time to try again. I saw the necessity when I turned the camera on myself. I had just washed my hair, what a lovely picture …No it wasn’t! I just couldn’t figure out how my Grandmother appeared in the room! I do miss her!
We also went to the Petsmart where we met Doug; he was working and told us about his seventeen cats he saved from shelters. So many people with kind hearts, they do without to help injured and homeless animals.
My morning walk outside was like walking in a cloud. Standing out in the yard I faced towards the west, the house was in front of me, it was similar to standing in a steamy bathroom. I should have felt down, with all that grey and off white. But I didn’t! There was a feel in the air, anticipation of tomorrow. Something was happening somewhere and I wanted to see it unfold.
The snow was melting underfoot. I checked out the low area near the trees to the north. I expected water, but I was met with ice. The ground was frozen solid. All the dry air that held in the sub zero temperatures at the beginning of the year had pulled out all the moisture under the snow. So the snow and rain hasn’t caused any flooding, yet.
The first picture, I took by the front door. You can see the cement front step, the snow and the darkness with the fog beyond.
I added a picture of Kenshin; I like how he seems to blend in with the rug.
He has blue eyes not red, I need to fix that.
Tomorrow I will follow Uriah around. I just hope he doesn’t try to bury the camera.
First day of a new year!
I stared out the window at the icicles that clung to the screen, trailed down the deck’s railings and lengthened underneath the grill. The winds had smoothed out the snow. And I could see little birds jumping in-between the branches of the Blue Spruce on the south side of the deck.
Uriah was outside. I watched as he slowly trudged through the snow and picked a spot, out in the open in the sunshine, to sit down. He looked out over the yard, and then looked over his shoulder at me. He was happy to be outside. The sky above him was a beautiful deep blue with puffy white clouds. The ice shimmered like clear diamonds, enhanced from the blinding white sunlight, as it reflected off the snow.
I finished my coffee and headed for my coat and boots.
Once outside I pulled my scarf up around my face. There wasn’t a wind, but frostbite was a reality in these low temperatures. Uriah danced around my legs until I handed him his morning biscuit. I waited as he crunched it to pieces. Then he nosed around in the snow until he found every last morsel.
Being Uriah he tried for two biscuits. I shook my head at him. He didn’t seem disappointed; instead he turned and waded through the snow towards the back path.
The snow was powdery and painfully white.
Uriah stopped, and looked back at me; he was hesitant to step near the path. He must have remembered the cold water running under the ice.
I moved cautiously forward and pushed my ski pole down into the snow. It hit frozen ground. Confident I wouldn’t end up with wet feet, I moved on.
Ice crystals were growing upwards along every piece of dried grass and twig sticking up from the snow.
As I got closer, I could see unfrozen dark water. Little puffs of snow perched on top stray blades of grass, which sat above and over the water. The sight was spectacular! The area was covered with multiple bouquets of white snow flowers. The highest stood only two inches tall.
Uriah took a couple of tentative steps forward, and found his own way around the freezing water. Instead of walking straight ahead, he had turned and walked into the trees and scramble over branches.
By walking on piles of dried grass, I was able to make my way to the southern fence line. From there I picked my way around the water, hoping to avoid getting my shoes wet.
I noticed that I was not the only one who walked this way. I spotted the tracks of a coyote, rabbit, and squirrel.
I stopped and laughed! Pheasant tracks! They were heading to the east. The same direction I was going! As the ground slopped upward, I followed them up and away from the water. As the path moved slightly south, I found the tracks under the trees.
That bird had followed the fence line. He walked halfway down the path, and then his tracks turned to the south. Where he moved into the open field and headed towards the denser tree line.
I kept walking. I waded through the powdery snow. I passed up some smaller tracks. They looked like the rat tracks that were near Uriah’s kennel.
There were some prints I couldn’t identity. The snow was soft and the footprints had caved in. This animal walked with his feet apart. He left a trail, similar to train tracks.
Once I reached the end of the path I rounded the back and passed by the farmer’s air field. Headed north and took a left turn and then faced west. There the Bog Willows stayed to my right. This took me in the direction that headed back home.
I walked under a bush, and noticed smaller tracks, possibly rat tracks. Or, maybe not! This guy had circled around and around underneath the bushes. More than likely it was gathering its breakfast. A few feet on the other side of the bush I came across a coyote’s tracks. He was circling the bush from the outside. I assumed, he too, was gathering his breakfast.
Uriah appeared from the tree line and looked at me. I waved at him. He turned and went back to his games.
At that point I noticed some small, nearly dotty tracks on top of the snow. I stepped forward and stepped into a snowdrift. This animal had to be very tiny, or he would have sunk in the snow. I stood still and picked out its trail. Then I stepped back where I could follow its path without standing in deep snow.
This animal had circled every piece of grass and wildflower it passed, and it left behind a tiny dusty trail underneath each plant. Its tracks moved perpendicular along the path I was on. I thought this was great! I was heading home. I could follow it without wasting time. I would even walk a little slower and keep an eye on its tracks.
Then the little tracks disappeared under a Bog Willow…
That was when I made a mistake!
I walked forward to see where the animal tracks had gone to. When I did that, I brushed against the top of a sagging Bog Willow. It was capped with heavy snow, as was everything else in sight.
As the snow showered down on my head I heard a squeak! I saw a mouse stick his head out of its nest of milkweed seeds. That nest was built in the center of the tangled branches, on the top of that Bog Willow, which was about five feet off the ground.
I should stop here and tell you. I don’t like mice! I am the idiot that will dance on the couch, bed or table when one of the little buggers appears. On with the story…
Now, all this was happening at face level!
Uriah caught a whiff of fear and came running! He danced around my feet when he saw the mouse!
The mouse saw the dog! Then looked at me… Its mini brain worked overtime during those seconds when it tried to figure out, who it feared the least… That was the one it would leap at!
The Bog Willow branch snapped upward!
I squealed!
Uriah barked!
And the mouse squeaked and landed on my arm!
I was in a Disney movie….!
My fear was that mouse would crawl down my coat!
I stopped hopping and held my hand out to Uriah to sit. I kept thinking, “Stay calm and relaxed.”
Riight!
I reached out and put my hand on the Bog Willow. I made a very shaky bridge, which I hoped that the mouse would use.
He did!
Once he was off my arm, I was out of there!
Uriah continued to hop up and down. Run in circles and sniff at the snow under the Bog Willow.
I headed over the flooded path, and broke though the ice. A wet left foot wasn’t going to slow me down!
Uriah, finally decided to follow, but refused to come inside the house. I left him outside to guard against an invasion of mice…
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This image comes from the Project Gutenberg archives. This is an image that has come from a book or document for which the American copyright has expired and this image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other countries.
File:Hickety Dickety Dock 1 – WW Denslow – Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
It snowed during the night. I had anywhere, from two to four inches of snow lining the driveway.
On my walk to the mailbox, Uriah took off under a tree. The stinging winds irritated him! I kept walking.
Forty feet before the road, I spotted some tracks stretching out from the fence to the south, then across the driveway. I stopped took my hat off, and shook my head. Nope! Not in the mood to trail after a suicidal chicken. Still, I knelt down near the tracks and noticed these were a lot smaller, and the prints weren’t as clear as the ones on Tuesday.
This bird stopped under the Blue Spruce, I could see how it had scratched around in the snow, and then took off towards the pond.
I had to follow. Obsession or stupidity!Either one didn’t matter… I had to follow.
The bird, instead of staying near the road, had weaved around the dried grass and snow, and moved towards the center of the yard. Within a hundred feet or so it reached the pond. Then turned in a wide circle and met up with its own tracks and doubled back.
I followed its tracks back to the fence, and saw that they ended under a Cedar tree.
This had to be a pheasant! She would be able to blend in under those evergreens easily. Unless Uriah flushed her out, I won’t find her. I was just glad I hadn’t found her dead in the road.
I went and got my mail.
The road was a mist of white, from the drifting snow. I waved at the state police, as he slowly drove past.
My right hand was freezing; I had lost my glove somewhere. I hope it was nearer the house and not in the pond.
Uriah, had been waiting and stepped out of the trees and followed me to the house.
Tonight is a full moon, the second in a month, a Blue moon. At least it is for me. In the southern hemisphere it is called a ‘Short Night Moon.’ Other parts of the world will be able to see a lunar eclipse
A few nights ago, even with cloud cover, the sky glowed. I had walked though the darken house and looked out the window. The clouds felt like a blanket overhead, their edges, where the clouds thinned out, glowed.
Last night, while it snowed, the moon shined brightly through the seamless clouds It was as if, someone was holding a piece of cloth in front of the moon. And still, its light could not be denied!
Tonight the year will change. Remember the moonlight and follow your dreams.
*
I walk in your mist of lightOnce when I was small The moon was more than light It brought on evil thoughts Insanity and rage Monsters under the bed As I grew it became a romantic icon Wanton ideas and lust A time to laugh and dance and sing A time to howl, without worries Anticipation of tomorrows Then when my children slept It lit the path outside my door Illuminating the end of a long day, I could sit and gaze, relaxed For all was quiet Once in a blue moon, a phrase That allowed me to reach beyond A light of yellow-white, or reddish-orange Was it ever blue? My muse My moon You sway above me as the world turns The days change into years You hover above with promise As I stare up at your face I hear your whisper For years to come… Bring us luck, love and happiness For a moon, blue or not, You are my welcome friend And, I dream in your light ** *
Picture from word clip art
The thought for the day was two fold. Drain and replace the antifreeze in the tractor before the radiator cracks. The second, walk the driveway and decide whether to snow blow today, or tomorrow.
I stepped outside and the lack of sound was overpowering.
A flurry of compacted flakes blanketed the air as they slowly drifted out of a solid grey sky. Every piece of ground, branch and roof top was outlined and covered in piles of soft, feathery snow.
Uriah immediately threw himself onto the snow covered driveway and rolled and moaned. Then he jumped up and raced in a circle around me.
I grabbed the push shovel and cleared a four foot area in front of the garage door. Then I set the shovel back in the garage and looked around for Uriah. He had headed out towards the northeast tree line. He had set his nose into the snow, and started running. The snow piled over his head and back. Within a few seconds he was covered in white and looked like he was tunneling under the snow.
I glanced towards the barn, and decided the tractor could wait. I needed see how much damage happened between the ice storms, pouring rains and massive snow fall. While I walked around I could check the driveway.
I whistled for my dog and headed down the driveway to the west.
This snow was perfect for cross country skiing, soft and puffy. Lousy for building a snow man, it won’t hold together.
This morning, Kenshin, our half Siamese male, complained loudly until I brought in some snow for him. He grabbed the bowl with his front paws and pulled the snow onto the rug and floor. He ran around, sliding in it. I shook the snow onto his head. He was so excited; he turned in circles and then jumped up and tried to catch the flakes.
I had grabbed a handful of Kenshin’s snow, and rolled the snow over and over, in my hands, until it started to melt and formed a ball. My hands froze! When it was hard enough, I slid the snowball across the kitchen floor. Kenshin took off down the hallway after the ice ball. When I went to find him he was sitting on the snowball like a chicken on an egg. With a wide puffy cheeky grin, only he can make.
Now, I am walked along the east end of the driveway. The snow at this point, was only up to my ankles. I could see the deeper drifts along the bend.
I had only walked about thirty feet, when tuned towards the house. The closer I got to the house, the deeper the snow became, until it was knee high. The bushes, in front of the house, had at least a foot of snow perched on top. I used my ski pole to slide it across each one, cutting apart the snow.
I noticed Uriah nosing around the four, Blue Spruces near the southern fence. I stopped and tried to smell the cold air. The last time Uriah brought me over here he was bothering a skunk. I wasn’t falling for that again. I hesitated! Nothing, no skunk! I moved towards the trees.
The silence was heavy. Not even a bird.
I walked around the back of the trees. Uriah came with me. That’s when I saw the snow had accumulated along the southern side of the trees. I brushed off one of the lower branches, and gave one of the higher branches a little shake.
Then, I stepped back to check out the next tree. Uriah was noising under that one. He was sniffing at some rabbit tracks. Just as I came in close and reached up to shake the snow off a higher branch. Uriah dove underneath the tree. His movements vibrated through the trunk, and caused the snow, even higher up to loosen. An avalanche of snow tumbled down from those higher branches onto us both.
I was a snowwoman! Snow trickled down inside the collar of my coat, onto my bare neck.
Uriah was happy; he pranced and started rolling in the deep snow.
“I’m full of snow!” I growled.
Uriah ran at me and grabbed my pants leg and tried to trip me. When I laughed, he ran around me and tried again. I shook the snow off my hat at him.
I turned and looked up at the trees; the snow was heaver higher up. I decided if the wind picked up tonight all that soft snow will fall. If it doesn’t, I will come out tomorrow. Without Uriah and shake them off.
“Ok, Uriah! Where to now?”
Uriah barked and ran off towards the back path.
The snow became deeper the further away from the house we got. Uriah ran ahead, anticipating a walk in the far back. So, he hit the ice and water first. I watched as he stopped and slowly turned to look at me with an, “Ahhhw Shoot!” look on his furry face, just as his weight broke the ice under his paws. He only slipped into water a couple of inches deep, but it must have been cold.
“Come on Uriah, let’s walk this way.” I coaxed him out of the water and off the ice. When he walked up to me, I rubbed his face. Then I pushed him behind me and I walked forward to check the path. I could see ice under the snow stretching ahead into running water.
Uriah waited for me to whistle at him. Then he raced ahead, kicking up snow as he ran. I walked along the tree line, heading west, back to the house.
I focused my attention inside the trees. The standing water showed up as grey frozen patches, slightly hidden under the snow. Water flowed out towards the drainage pipe, which ran under the gravel driveway in front of the barn. The ice was grayish-green with pee-yellow streaks caught just under the surface. Frozen in place! The yellow looked like veins in a leaf.
I walked over the top of the drainage pipe, past the barn and in-between the mulberry bush.
The water trickled from the open pipe, on the west end of the barn. It flowed about twenty feet, until it froze solid! The top of the water had eight puffy, round snow mounds that resembled giant marshmallows. And three ovate shaped ones, which looked like they were pinched in the middle, then stretched out on the ends. The water was dark and clear; I could see the dark greens and assorted gold colors of the field grass under the water.
Uriah stood behind me, and whimpered he didn’t want his paws wet again.
“What’s wrong?” As I asked him, he turned and ran to the garage door. He had enough of the cold and wet.
I pulled at my collar and shook some snow out from under my jacket. “Ok, let’s go back in for a biscuit and coffee!”…
*
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Picture is from word clip art
The deck has been making popping sounds all night. With temperatures dropping fast, the water that was absorbed by the deck boards was expanding. The deeper the ground freezes. The colder the air feels. And the more the deck pops. I keep picturing nails shooting out.
I nearly forgot to check the mail today. I put on a heavy flannel shirt with my stylish orange coat, my black waterproof old boots. Wrapped a scarf around my neck, and stuck a grey knit hat on my head and pulled on my over sized brown gloves…
I have to stop here, because my younger male cat, walked off with one of the gloves and I had to sweet-talk him to get it back. I was a bit overheated by the time I grabbed my ski pole walking stick, and called to Uriah to follow me down the driveway.
Just outside the garage doors, Uriah stopped, lifted his face to the winds, and promptly turned around and asked to go back into the garage. I bribed him with a few, six to be exact, Liver Snaps.
Closer to the house, on the left side of the driveway as you face west, is a very tall Blue Spruce. It blocks the wind and cold beautifully As soon as I passed that tree I readjusted my scarf and gave Uriah another biscuit.
The sun was shining brightly and the air was freezing.
Uriah decided if he had to follow me he would stay behind me the entire time. This way I was blocking the wind.
“Uriah, you can’t be cold.” I scolded him; he grinned and listened for the word treat, or biscuit.
I showed him my gloved hands were void of treats. “You don’t need any more. You have too much body fat!”
Uriah must have taken offense at that, because he sneezed and wandered over to the fence line and urinated. He waddled back, but never looked at me.
I made him stop and sit before we got all the way to the road.
The thirty feet before the driveway ended, the blacktop ended. The next twenty feet was dirt and gravel. Tire ruts were filled in with smooth solid ice and banked with craggy ice patches.
The last ten feet slopped upwards. I trudged up that slight incline at the end of the driveway. Then stopped and tried to plan out my path. Those few feet to the mailbox were littered with large chunks of shining, grayish white, ice. Slick and jagged! If I wasn’t careful I would fall.
I waited for three cars to past, before I moved up and left, towards the mailbox.
The mailbox door was open. That’s not unusual, trucks speed along this road. Add in winds and I’m surprised they don’t rip out the entire box, post and all. So far this winter, knock on wood, my mail hasn’t gotten blown out onto the road.
I checked inside the box, nothing! I slowly moved back towards my waiting dog.
“Hey! Uriah, do you know how to figure out a formula for Relative Velocity?” I grabbed his muzzle with both gloved hands and rubbed his face as I continued talking. “Take a truck, a mailbox, and add in wind speed …”
Uriah looked at me, lowered his head to the ground and started to jump around alike a puppy.
“Okay, I get it! You want to go back home!” I headed towards the house as Uriah happily trotted directly in front of me.
On the way back, I noticed a large softball size piece of ice sitting on the side of the driveway. Stupidly, not realizing it was frozen to the ground. I kicked it trying to get it off the blacktop. I made a mental note never to do that again. My boots helped to protect my toes. Uriah looked like he was laughing at me…
I live near a small town. I am two and a half miles out of town into farm country. The town was built on a lower section of land and its only 5 sq. miles. So when the winds are blasting my home, the town has a nice breeze.
Only once, that I can recall, in the past fourteen years did the town get hit ‘hard’ with heavy winds.
It was a couple of years ago; I was heading into the small grocery store. As I walked into the store, I could hear the townspeople talking about the winds.
(Townspeople that word sounds like they have torches and pitchforks and are shooing out the monsters)
“How horrible!” I heard, as I moved up and down the aisles.
“Have you ever seen anything like this? “ Someone else asked me, as I stood paying for my groceries.
Now, I didn’t want to start a conversation that sounded like I was in kindergarten. My winds are stronger than your winds, type of argument. Instead I held up my hand, palm towards her, in a signal for her to wait a minute. I walked outside the store, a few seconds later I came back in and answered. I said, “Seen worse.”
A farmer was in the line behind her, he just nodded in agreement.
She looked confused. I got a good look at myself in the front window. My hair was standing on end. Smiling to myself I collected my groceries and walked out the door.
I check online for the daily temperatures. Then, I step outside to see if the winds are blowing.
Or if it is summer… or is the sun shining? Or not!
In town they also have more tree coverage. All this gives them a slightly warmer winter temperatures than where I am at, just mere two and half miles ‘down the road.’
Heavy sigh!
What does all that mean? Well, when the temperature online is 11 degrees above zero. Like it is right now! Where I’m at it’s … 5 degrees. Heat wave!
It will get colder….
Years ago, I made a bright yellow garden sign with this poem;
Writt
en on December 7th, 2009~
Earlier this morning when I took my dog out for a walk, the air was a mist of grey fog. The sun was a haze in the early morning sky. When I first glanced up, I thought the Sun was the Moon, defused in the grey mist and entangle in the dense cloud cover. My breath and the fog were inseparable.
It had snowed during the night. Everything was covered in white. Each branch was coated, in a perfect holiday photo shoot. The ground was frozen so even the driveway was paved white.
I stayed near the house, and planned on walking out back later in the day.
It was nearly four o’clock in the afternoon by the time I decided to take a walk. The snow was no longer coating the trees. Only lines of snow zigzagged across the lawn
Uriah took off in the trees, angrily barking. He reappeared in front of me, only to follow the tracks of a grey squirrel. Whose residence is in the trees at the beginning of the path.
The air was cold yet tolerable. I had forgotten my gloves back by the house and my fingers weren’t freezing, so I was happy. I started walking to the right, where the ground moves upward on a slight incline. Directly in the center of the path a small, three inch evergreen had taken root. I never saw it before. I made a mental note to remember and check on it in spring. If it really was growing on the path I’ll need to transplant it.
I continued on my way. When I reached the far back and started to circle home, I stopped to admire the old farm house and its red barn, equally sized white Silos and smaller buildings all built up together like a castle, the surrounding grass and turned over fields, patterned shades of brown, yellow, green, and beige. The sections were the last rain fell washed the dirt to a dark black. White snow striped the empty corn fields.
I could see for miles…
Faded green grass still stood out in the farmer’s air field. Along the air field, past forty acres of plowed fields, I watched Black Angus cows. They moved slowly into a fenced in field.
Off to the northeast, I could see helicopter hovering in the direction of the express way.
Uriah started to bark, as I walked back, I kept calling his name, and he kept answering by barking- not by appearing.
I reached the part of the path, that was directly across from where I saw the little evergreen, at the beginning of my walk. I stopped and poked the dirt with my ski pole, it gave way. I called to Uriah each call I stabbed the pole at the dirt, I hit a rock!
Curiosity got the better of me. I stood there digging out this little rock, which lay just under the dirt and field grass. It was a slight tipsy square flat rock, to my eye it was nearly perfect. With the thought of crafting something, maybe checkers. I slipped it into my pocket as Uriah barked again.
At that point I looked down, and found another little evergreen growing on the path.
The grass all around me had given up trying to reach for the sky and laid level with the ground, sleeping until spring. I walked back a few feet searching for more of the little saplings. I found six more going in the center of the path.
Uriah’s barking became more agitated; I started walking back towards home. Every few feet I called him and he answered back, I felt like I was playing ‘Marco Polo’ with him.
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackangus.jpg
