The Loopy Vine

February 9, 2010.  Tuesday.

Situation:   No work outside the house today, but I don’t get around to taking Mway for a walk until about 10 minutes to 5.   Looking out the living room windows, I see snow starting to fall, the first sight of the forecasted storm for tonight.  I rush upstairs to put on my walking clothes, including my new pair of socks, then rush downstairs to put on my boots and snow suit.   Moi and Mway have been napping, but as I’m putting on my orange wool cap, Moi appears in the kitchen, followed by Mway.

State of the Path:  Mway scoots out the door, pushes her snout into the snow.  She runs ahead of me, sniffing at foot prints, in the walled garden sniffing at the trash and the bushes, then running around the garden pond to stick her head in the pig pen.   The path is still smashed down and it’s still easy walking, but there is a fine powder starting to fill the foot prints.  Passing the sumacs just beyond the pig pen, I notice the same berries scattered across the snow as I noticed down at the ridge yesterday.  Down at bug land, Mway lifts her snout in the air, as if for the first time just noticing that it’s starting to snow.  Along the creek, I note the loopy vine sticking up out of the snow in the path; I haven’t mentioned this vine before because I haven’t lately noticed it, but I’ve been more conscious of it since Moi snapped a picture of it and sent it to me by email.  Lately I think I’ve been more mindful of the two shrubs that close in on the path at this point.  Coming up to the break in the ridge around bug land, I note, also sticking out of the snow, the new evergreen that Moi pointed out and said not to step on.  Seems to me that it’s looking a bit brown. 

State of the Creek:  There’s a new powder of snow forming a layer on the ice; new powder on the barrel in the log jam.  I look for the weird bicycle-tire-like track, but can’t find it anymore.   I spot an empty bird’s nest in a branch of a tree that overhangs the creek, and then spot a broken tree branch caught in the forks of two trees on the other side of the creek.   Like Mway, my head is in the air today more than usual.

The Fetch:  Up in the clearing, Mway greets me with a spot of snow on her nose, which she then wipes off, rather self-consciously it seems to me, with a flick of her tongue.  I throw the stick toward the exit of the clearing; Mway brings it back, coughing and snorting, but more used to the snow in her mouth and nostrils today than yesterday.   Still she doesn’t fetch the stick more than five times, before she’s ready to head back to the house.  As usual, she runs way ahead of me.  As I’m walking back, I see that, unlike at the beginning of our walk, the snow has started lodging visibly on the branches of trees and shrubs.