June 21, 2010. Monday.
Situation: Today I have to go to work as soon as I can get around to it. But first I have to do all of Moi’s chores, including take Mway for her morning walk. I decide to take her out while the coffee water is dripping and while my computer is grinding away to open up its unwieldy programs. It’s about 8:45.
State of the Path: This early in the morning I expect to be splashed by the morning dew, but I don’t encounter any until I get to the seeps of bug land, and even there there’s not much of it, which serves to emphasize how dry it’s been. Again I touch the touch-me-nots, and again they don’t coil and twinge, and I realize how hard and dry the ground of the path is, and that because of the lack of rain, the path is easier walking than it normally would be this time of year. I don’t bother to take either side path, and although the end of the upper side path is choked with goldenrod, just before the wigwams, I think I can even make out a trace of the beginning of the path that used to cut across the field, although further on I see there’s too many weeds to make any easy attempt at it. The raspberries, though, are doing well this year, and I help myself to some down by the creek. At the swale from bug land, the touch-me-nots seem heartier, but they are not in flower there. I look more closely at the yellow flowers on the way to the clearing. They have five yellow petals, with stamens and so forth the same color. I don’t find anything in Audubon that looks like what I see.
State of the Creek: The rocky areas of the creek are definitely dry, with no water trickling through them. So the creek consists of a string of disconnected, unflowing pools, one or two of which Mway walks into to cool off and take a sip of water.
The Fetch: Mway fetches the “pro-quality” stick more times than I care to count. I note that the grass underneath the goldenrod is brown. On the walk back past the sumacs, the path is becoming choked with briars. In the back yard, I look at the lawn and wonder if I should wait until tomorrow to mow it.
Addendum: I finish up work and get home about 4:45. I guess I’ll take Mway for another walk, after which I’ll eat and then I’ll mow the lawn after I eat. I take both side paths, just for the sake of trampling the weeds. I see grape vine leaves that are bigger than my hand; some of the fleabane towers over my head. Down by the creek, I hear a frog or two croaking down where I used to see the skunk cabbages; I see a frog crossing the path as it leaps into the water. Mway goes into a pool, and I can hear some dry rocks crackling against each other as she steps on them. Then I stop at the yellow flowers on the way to the clearing – I’ve brought the Audubon with me. As Mway heads up toward the clearing, and with the sun beating on my workshirt and sweat coming down my face, I leaf through the pictures, eliminating one by one several candidates for the plant I see before me: black mustard? – nope; hedge mustard? – nope; common wintercress? – nope; nodding bur marigold? – nope; tickseed sunflower? – almost, but nope. Mway comes back down the path, and starts staring at me, beckoning me to the clearing. Then just as I’m about ready to give up, I come upon what I’m certain that I’m looking at: common St. johnswort. 5 petals on branched, terminal clusters; long, opposite, elliptic leaves. And the clincher: I even see the black dots on the margins of the petals. Supposedly the leaves have tiny translucent dots that can be seen in the light; I tear a leaf off and hold it up, but Mway is still looking at me, and I drop the leaf and move on.
2 comments:
You were on a roll yesterday. Do it again.
In Disney’s “Gingerbread,” the man and woman lived “in a little red house up on a little green hill.” In “Three Friends,” “’It is not late. It is early in the morning.” In “Taxi Dog,” Jim says “’You’ll ride in my taxi.’” In “Doctor De Soto,” Mrs. De Soto “pressed the buzzer and let the fox in,” which fox soon “had a tasty little morsel in his mouth,” despite which Dr. De Soto “the next morning” “got into his mouth.” In “Cinderella,” Cinderella “put it in the pocket of her shabby apron and ran all the way home.” In “The Butter Battle Book,” “he came back the next day in a spiffy new suit.” In “The Very Busy Spider,” “the spider caught the fly in her web” and “it had been a very, very busy day.” In “Attack,” “the virus should run its course in about a week” and “Calvin has to be inside for a week.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines “week” as “any seven consecutive days,” defines “day” as “the time of light between one night and the next,” defines “light” as “something that makes vision possible,” defines “vision” as “the act or power of seeing.” In Disney’s “Gingerbread Man,” the last thing the old man “expected to see running down the path was a gingerbread man!” In “Three Friends,” Grandfather “stopped the car” and said, “’I see’,” and Sam laughed and said, “’Now we do not have to see something’.” In “Taxi Dog,” “there’s so much to see!” and “We’ll see all the sights.” In “Doctor De Soto,” De Soto tells the fox “’You will never have to see us again’.” In “The Butter Battle Book,” Grandpa said “’Be patient…We’ll see. We will see…’” In “Doctor De Soto,” De Soto “had no end of patients.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines “patient” as “an individual awaiting or under medical care and treatment,” defines “individual” as a “particular person,” defines “particular” as “of or relating to a single person or thing,” defines “of” as “relating to,” defines “relating” as, never mind just now how it defines “relating.” In Disney’s “Gingerbread Man,” the fox was “on the river bank” then “in the middle of the river.” In “Three Friends,” “Sam was hungry,” and, seeing three cookies, said “’I will eat just one of them’.” In “Doctor De Soto,” “Mrs. De Soto molded a tooth of pure gold.” In “Taxi Dog,” “Jim took a scarf of bright red” and “kissed me on the top of my head.” In “Cinderella,” the sisters “were jealous of her beauty” and the fairy godmother makes “a fine carriage of crystal and gold!” The article on “Gold” in “The World Book Encylopedia” states that “Possession of this attractive bright yellow metal has been a mark of wealth for thousands of years.” In “The Butter Battle Book,” grandfather says “on this side of the Wall, we are Yooks. On the far other side of this Wall live the Zooks.” In a photograph in the article on “Gold” in the “World Book Encyclopedia,” the “Federal Reserve Bank of New York, right, stores the gold reserves of many nations,” which gold reserves look a lot like bricks of butter. M.
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