Threats to the Path

May 10, 2010.  Monday.

 Situation:  Work this afternoon, come home and take Mway out about 4:15.  I bring along one of her smaller sticks that she left in the yard.  I plan to mow some, if not all, of the lawn this evening, and that is one less stick I will run over with the lawnmower.

State of the Path:  As I walk along I consider how, in particular, the golden rod and the grasses are threatening to erase the path.  Definitely the path is still there, traced out by our foot steps and Mway’s paw prints, and in some spots you can even still see bare ground, but the weeds and grass are growing higher everyday, and most of them simply spring back up after you step on them.  The biggest threat to the path, blackberry brambles, has not yet emerged in a major way, at least for now.  Down at the corner of the property, I look again at the oaks, and I still cannot make up my mind whether these are pin or black oaks (although because of the habitat, and because their trunks are straight, I’m inclined to say they’re pin oaks).  The two trees where the deer stand, I should say, used to be, because only two dangling boards remain, are I believe some kind of ash trees.  Along the creek, I hear one or two birds making a racket – like the sound a radio makes as you sweep the dial.  I’ve heard this kind of racket before, and I believe the birds are cardinals, but they also could be redwing blackbirds – I should go back to listening to Moi’s birdcall app on her iPhone.

State of the Creek:  The water in the creek keeps getting lower and lower; in some places most of the creek bed is dry exposed rock.

The Fetch:  Mway fetches the stick more times than I care to count.  A number of times as she’s spinning around at my feet while I reach down to pick up the stick she barks right into my ear and even tramples on the stick as I’m trying to pick it up.