Dumb Me Should Have Known Yarrow

July 17, 2010.  Saturday.

Situation:  Yesterday afternoon, before going to work, I told Moi about the problem I was having in identifying the plants, one of which I’m sure is Queen Anne’s lace, or wild carrot.  Moi takes me out to the garden, where there’s a big wild carrot growing, and I see immediately that that’s the same as the second plant I saw in the clearing.  Referring to the similarity with poisonous hemlock, Moi says that that’s a plant that flowers in the spring; and, indeed, I recall seeing hemlock this spring, not in the fields, which is why I didn’t mention it, but along the perimeter of the lawn and in the midst of a stand of day lilies in the middle of the lawn.  Moi then tells me that the other plant I’ve been seeing, and have been hesitant to call wild carrot, is probably yarrow.  I fairly smack myself in the head, because this is a plant I should know, and I run into the house to look yarrow up in the Audubon.  The book has a photo of yarrow on the same page as Queen Anne’s lace, but it is a close-up view of the plant, a butterfly’s perspective, and doesn’t show any of the leaves.  In the entry on the plant, though, is a perfect description of what I’ve been seeing: “flat-topped clusters of small, whitish flowers grow at the top of a gray-green, leafy, usually hairy, stem”; “leaves…long, very finely dissected, gray-green, fern-like.”  If Audubon had had a photo from a human perspective in the book, I would have recognized the plant right away.  While we’re still out in the yard, I realize that the purple plants growing in the lawn, and about the only thing that’s been growing there the last few weeks, is heal-all, smaller specimens of the same plant I saw down at bug land, and I point this out to Moi, who didn’t know before what the plant was and is happy to learn what it is.  Moi and I both work tonight together, and sometime before then, I’ll be taking Mway out for her walk; in fact, why don’t I do that now – it’s 10:38.  I’m sure Moi didn’t take her for a walk earlier, and the Boy is visiting from NYC, he can take Mway out later, whenever he wakes up.  Yesterday late in the afternoon, a wicked storm passed over, and perhaps I’ll see some evidence of that.  I believe Mway doesn’t stink anymore; at least, she was sleeping in Moi’s room when I came home from work late last night.

State of the Path:  Out in the yard, while I’m taking a pee, the fat rooster pecking at my boot, Mway starts sniffing the grass, and before I know it, she’s flat on her back, rolling in something.  I yell at her to stop.  Just off the walled garden, I see what I think is another new wildflower, but its little purple flowers seem damaged somewhat, and I don’t feel like trying to identify a new plant today.  The weeds aren’t too wet, but they are a jumble in the path; I can barely see where the path is for most of the walk.  Mway shoots down the side path along the old orchard, and I follow.  Long green briars arch across the path, but, with the stress the plants have been experiencing in the dry weather, I’m hesitant to knock anything down.  We round the path at the back hedgerow, and just about at the place where there once was a stand of jack-in-the-pulpits, we stumble upon a rabbit, lying upon its shoulder, its head uplifted, as if it’s gazing at the weeds.  I think at once that it must be injured, but I see nothing to show that.  It sees us, and it’s breathing heavily, and seems to be having trouble getting up, but finally it springs off its belly and dashes into the brambles, with Mway in pursuit.  I don’t really want Mway to chase after it, but I realize that this is what dogs do, and I only half-heartedly tell her to stop.  At any rate, the rabbit seems to be doing well, as Mway thrashes about in the briars, losing sight of the animal, and I walk on.  Mway catches up with me when I get down to the creek.

State of the Creek:  The creek is, I realize as I’m walking along seeing water all along its extent, a creek again.  Trickles among the rocks, a shimmering in the pools, a half dozen frogs leaping into the water as I move toward them.  Even along the crest of the skating pond, water from the pool under the big oak tree flows down through the wide creek bed past the car tire.

The Fetch:  Mway fetches the “pro-quality” stick more times than I care to count, and plays “Put it down” once.  It’s not feeding time for her, and I’m through with trying to figure out what motivates her to fetch the stick many times on one walk and only three times on another, or to play “Put it down” five times or only once.