June 20, 2010. Sunday.
Situation: Work all day today. When I get home about 6:30, no one is here. The Boy has gone back to NYC; Moi has taken Atlas back to Jazz’s, where she finds it less stressful to watch him. Moi has left a note on my computer monitor that says “Mway needs supper,” “Chickens need locked up.” I find Mway on Moi’s bed. After I put on my walking clothes, then go downstairs to put on my boots, gloves, and safari helmet, Mway comes down to the kitchen, ready to go for her walk.
State of the Path: The chickens come running up to me, with their peeps following behind them. Mway and I head to the path. Just before the pig pen, in the middle of the path, I see the conspicuous plant with long spiked green flowers which I haven’t mentioned before because I didn’t know what it was. But since yesterday, when I was leafing through the Audubon, I think I can confidently say that this plant is a common ragweed, to be distinguished from the great ragweed, which I’m more familiar with, because most years we have that growing in great numbers, to its maximum height of fifteen feet. I haven’t yet this year seen great ragweed growing to that kind of height (except that one time by the summer house), but I do also see it coming up around the place, perhaps more than the common ragweed. On the side path, I refrain from eating any raspberries, because I’m afraid of getting the seeds stuck in my teeth. But when I get down to the creek, there’s a stand of raspberries with so many ripe ones that I cannot stop myself from eating some of them; I just make a point of chewing on the better side of my mouth. All along the path, I notice how some of the plants seem bedraggled because of the dry weather, especially the touch-me-nots. In fact I touch some of the touch-me-nots and discover that they lack all that spring which they usually have and from whence they derive their name. Not one of the touch-me-nots which I touch twinges or coils up (like they do I guess to spray their seeds); and this suggests to me that these flowers have bloomed prematurely this season. On the board on the ground near the wigwams, I see the pile of turds Mway left there yesterday. Coming up to the clearing, I see several of the white flowers with fern-like leaves that I’ve seen before and didn’t know what they were. But again, after leafing through the Audubon, I think I can confidently say these are Queen Anne’s lace, or wild carrot, which is a plant I think I should have recognized but perhaps didn’t because of how they were situated. I see a lot more of the yellow flowers that I saw before, and judging from their leaves it seems to me that they might be what Moi calls goose grass, or bed straw, now in flower. But the pictures I see in Audubon for bed straw and goose grass looks nothing like this. I also see some violet flowers and lavender flowers growing just before bug land; but, right now, I don’t even feel like leafing through the Audubon to try to guess what they might be.
State of the Creek: It seems to me that some of the pools in the creek are starting to dry up, as I notice some wet mud among the rocks. Particularly along the crest of the skating pond, it seems to me that what used to be one long pool has now divided up into two smaller ones, with dry rocks in between. Still I hear some frogs leaping into the water as I walk along.
The Fetch: Up at the clearing, Mway fetches the “pro-quality” stick more times than I care to count, but not as many times as she was doing when Atlas was around. When we get back to the back yard, I think about my chore of having to lock up the chicken cage and expect that I’ll have to wait a while before I have to go out and do that. But when I get back, the chickens have already all gone back in their coop, and conveniently all I have to do is shut and latch the cage door as I’m walking by.
