Board Rattles Against the Hard Ground

July 7, 2010.  Wednesday.

Situation:  Moi woke me up this morning with the announcement, “I have to go to work now.  I didn’t take Mway for her walk.”   It’s another hour or so before I drag myself out of bed, about 9:30.  Since Moi already made coffee and turned on my computer, I now sit here drinking a mug of coffee, having a cigarette, and writing this.  Mway patiently lies on the floor of her room, waiting for the moment when I take her out, which will be just in a few minutes.  I myself have to work tonight, and I haven’t yet checked my emails to see if I have any work that has to be done during the day.  My muscles feel sore; I’ve been swimming everyday for a number of days, and perhaps that’s too often – but because of the hot weather, I’m sure I’ll go swimming again today.  Well, I’ve finished my cigarette, and have just one gulp of coffee to swallow, so here Mway and I go.

State of the Path:  Out on the back porch I have a little trouble finding the “pro-quality” stick; yesterday Mway had dropped it at the end of the porch and I had neglected to pick it up and put it on the bench.  For a minute or so I fear the stick may have been lost, but then I discover that someone, probably Moi, has placed it safely against the wall of the house.  Out on the side path, I reflect that, in past years, this side path by now would be impassible without chopping down briars and weeds with a weed whacker, and much of the main path would need whacking too.  But this year, although plenty of weeds lean into the pathway, and make these walks no stroll in the park, there hasn’t been any need, because of the extremely dry weather, to cut things down in a major way.  Down by the wigwams, when Mway walks over the board that’s lying on the path, it rattles against the hard ground.  Up on the side path and down by the creek, there are still stands of jewelweed, with leaves and flowers withered, that I bet would bounce back vibrantly if we had some rain.  On the sumacs, which are now bearing their bright berries, there are portions of branches that hold nothing but crumpled brown leaves.  Many of the plants have yellow leaves, although I notice that the leaves on the pin oaks are striking in their greenness.   There are just too many red honeysuckle berries around, but I see birds flying out of them.  I see butterflies – I’ve been too lazy to try to identify them.  I think about checking the elderberries to see if the purple berries have come out on them, but I forget to.

State of the Creek:   The three puddles are still there, and Mway steps into the one along the crest of the skating pond.  A frog leaps across the path and dives into the puddle just beyond the big trees.  I haven’t yet seen any flowers on the sweet flag growing in the feed channel, and their leaves are flopped against the dirt.

The Fetch:  Up at the clearing, I realize that I haven’t been paying much attention to tossing the stick because by the time I get here I’m just so damn hot; I just want to throw the stick, get it over with, and hop into the pool.   Mway doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat and insists on fetching the stick a good number of times and on playing “Put it down” at least once.  But back in the yard, she does hop into the water basin beneath the lilac bush, her own little pool, that Moi set up for her yesterday evening.