The Evergreen Sapling

February 23, 2010.  Tuesday.

Situation:  No work today.  Moi has been collecting sap from a maple tree in our back yard that we pulled up from beneath a power line and transferred there shortly after we moved in – it may indeed be a sugar maple.  Moi has been boiling the sap down all day and it is, as she claims, yielding a nice syrup – enough for one pancake so far.  I have been following my regimen of 4 pills of penicillin a day, plus mouth washings of hydrogen peroxide, regular mouth wash, and brushing with a new toothbrush and more careful flossing.  Today at noon I was able to eat two eggs and a boiled potato, with some crumbs of salmon thrown in.  Last night I took an hour and half to eat a salad.  I take Mway out about 3.

State of the Path:  Though this morning there was a new coating of snow on the ground, by late afternoon the path looks pretty much the way it did yesterday.  I consider taking a walk along the old orchard, but the snow still looks too deep to make for a leisurely stroll, which is all I’m up for today.  I hear birds down through the maples and along the creek, as well crows up in the field beyond the creek somewhere.  I also consider taking a walk past the skating pond, but I don’t venture beyond the feed channel, because the snow covering it looks treacherous.  I suddenly spy Mway skulking along the ridge at the far end of the pond.  Walking back along bug land, I spot a lot of new sumac berries fallen on the snow.  I also finally see, sticking out of the snow, the evergreen sapling that Moi told me several weeks ago not to step on – fortunately the path I’ve been tracing in the snow winds around the sapling.  The leaves on the sapling look rather brown, and I don’t know if it will survive to grow much bigger.  Mway catches up to me as I walk toward the clearing. 

State of the Creek:  The path is starting to get pretty muddy along the creek.  I take my time looking among the trees, trying to spot what birds might be chirping there, when suddenly I spot a gray bird I’m not able to identify, then soon afterward a red cardinal, both birds among the branches of two multiflora bushes that engulf two oaks on the opposite bank of the creek.  They take off soon after I spot them – I conclude that the gray bird is the red cardinal’s female mate.

The Fetch:  There is some bare ground starting to show where the snow is packed down in the clearing.  I don’t hesitate to throw the stick farther than that area, because the snow is now low enough that it doesn’t hinder Mway in any way.   Four fetches.