diary 12/4/12 lichenpuffs, springtails, scent
The day looked so white grey and dreary cold that I hadn’t planned on going outdoors….but the chickadees came right to the office window to encourage me…and once outside I didn’t regret a minute of it. They fluttered and flew and took seeds from my hand, which is always a thrill…and after a while I heard an almost heartbreakingly Sweet and shaking birdvoice sing songs coming from the shrubbery. A brownish bird…but one that I could not make out for the distance. The notes sounded so much like ‘Here comes the bride-bride-bride-bride’. And the voice…I just can’t even explain how charming and moving it was…how beautiful and also endearing in that it seemed somehow to be shy and shaking…as if it was trying these songs out for the first time. Back inside I looked up keywords to Beethoven’s 5th to see if I could identify the bird…I’m not the only one who has been puzzled by it….perhaps a white-breasted sparrow?
Back outside. Adjusting my eyes to really see around the yard I was amused to discover these puffy tufts of lichen bursting forth from parts of the barren winter tree branches. I can’t even make this stuff up. Looking like some craftykid’s Dr.Seussian flufftops on perfect green camo- wrapped wand-twigs.
As I shift scales I see the intricately textured jungles of lichen communities of all kinds on every surface of the trees and fallen branches…and those teenytiny Globular springtails come into focus Everywhere.
Later still I put on my rainboots to take a walk on damp wooded paths in the dusky light of late afternoon …breathing in the scents of wet pine needles, bark, leaves and straining to catch some of the complex cocktails of other mysteries I haven’t yet learned to recognize or decipher. I cross paths with a woman and her small dog…and she tells me how her dog seems confused today….that the rain may have mixed her scents/senses. Of course I want to hear more..so she tells me that when this dog was a puppy and experienced her first snow how confusing it seemed to be for her. ”You see, she buries her bones everywhere and seems to Know where they all are…and suddenly being let outside after the snow blanketed the yard she seemed shocked and sniffing the air like…WHERE ARE ALL MY BONES???? We talk a bit about that…and imagine what it might look like to ‘see’ this road and the world mapped how the dogs can see/read it on an average day….”In a few years I’m sure, ” she says….and I nod my head in agreement….looking at the air and treetrunks and drawing circles within my mind.
Back outside. Adjusting my eyes to really see around the yard I was amused to discover these puffy tufts of lichen bursting forth from parts of the barren winter tree branches. I can’t even make this stuff up. Looking like some craftykid’s Dr.Seussian flufftops on perfect green camo- wrapped wand-twigs.
As I shift scales I see the intricately textured jungles of lichen communities of all kinds on every surface of the trees and fallen branches…and those teenytiny Globular springtails come into focus Everywhere.
Later still I put on my rainboots to take a walk on damp wooded paths in the dusky light of late afternoon …breathing in the scents of wet pine needles, bark, leaves and straining to catch some of the complex cocktails of other mysteries I haven’t yet learned to recognize or decipher. I cross paths with a woman and her small dog…and she tells me how her dog seems confused today….that the rain may have mixed her scents/senses. Of course I want to hear more..so she tells me that when this dog was a puppy and experienced her first snow how confusing it seemed to be for her. ”You see, she buries her bones everywhere and seems to Know where they all are…and suddenly being let outside after the snow blanketed the yard she seemed shocked and sniffing the air like…WHERE ARE ALL MY BONES???? We talk a bit about that…and imagine what it might look like to ‘see’ this road and the world mapped how the dogs can see/read it on an average day….”In a few years I’m sure, ” she says….and I nod my head in agreement….looking at the air and treetrunks and drawing circles within my mind.