January 29, 2010. Friday.
Situation: I have to work tonight, plus I have some other work to do beforehand, so I take Mway out about 1:30.
State of the Path: The ground, the mud, the puddles in the path, bug land, in the maples, and elsewhere – everything is frozen solid. But no sooner do I judge this to be so than I slip on some unfrozen mud on the path down by the creek. Coming up to the clearing, a gray dead jagger sticks out in the path, and I whack it to pieces with my walking stick.
State of the Creek: The creek is beginning to freeze, and the ice is in a variegated state – similar to what it was back -- I don’t remember when exactly now. On the rocks, the ice is a crystallized lace work; along the banks, it tends to be a solid fuzzy white; in deeper areas, it is a transparent sheet showing brown water beneath, and thin enough to break through with my walking stick.
The Fetch: Up in the clearing, Mway seems very eager to fetch stick, but she only fetches it three times. Maybe she feels it is too early for her “real” afternoon walk, but this is the only one she’s going to get from me today. I note that the weird fungi on the stick on the ground is deteriorating, or maybe it’s just crumbling apart from Mway carelessly stepping on it as she focuses fully on her fetching stick.
