The first snow of the year. Huge wet flakes gathering on the grass, trees and my coat. No wind, just parts of the sky drifting down, covering the land to make black and white pictures out of scenes that were in full color yesterday. A half-inch snowflake drifts down slowly onto my hand and sits there in its hexagonal perfection. By the time my camera is ready and pointed, only a drop remains where perfection sat. Like one of life’s moments to be enjoyed now before we pass on to the next.
Back indoors, the full color palette is restored and we approach the portal to our Second Life where our avatars never catch colds or a hang over. Other social networks will do as well to add the color that’s disappeared with the summer.
Larry and the Bear cont’d.
7
Green Ore July 28
After breakfast Suzie, Kevin and ‘John’ went out to visit with the four hens that had provided their breakfast. Suzie poured a little grain into a dish and held open the pen so that ‘John’ could go in. Immediately, the hens crowded round and pecked at the grain in the dish until it was empty. This was a new and exciting experience and he wanted more. Suzie refilled the dish. It was soon empty once again.
“Com’n ‘John’ we’re going down to the river to find some pebbles for Kevin,” and Suzie opened the door to the pen and held out her hand.
The river was a little over a quarter of a mile through the tall trees along a well-marked path. They came out just below a bend in the river where the bank was about three feet above the fast moving water. The bank was tree-free and consisted of a mixture of grass, Oregon grape, red huckleberry, and red elderberry. As they made their way towards the bend, Suzie dropped her shoulder bag by one of the small Oregon grape plants.
“I’ll dig that one up on the way back, it looks about the right size.”
“Okay,” said Kevin and then turning to ‘John’ “Are you going to help me find some nice flat pebbles?”
‘John’ just nodded, this was much more exciting than his old backyard. There was no noisy river there and it didn't smell the same. The peaty smell of the woods was familiar but the smell of the river was quite different, much fresher and the air was cooler to close to the water. The bend, where the ground sloped down to the water with a big array of pebbles, had accumulated pebbles worn smooth by the action of one against another as they were moved along when the river was in spate and dumped on the bend. There were all sizes, shapes and colors and walking on them was not easy, especially for someone with small feet.
“Careful,” said Kevin holding ‘John’s’ hand to prevent him falling. “Look there’s a nice one.” And he picked up a flat grey-green one with two veins like thin white stripes running through it. He found another three to his liking and helped ‘John’ back towards the grass.
Suzie had already made her way back to the shrub and had pulled out a trowel and some pruners from her bag and had started to dig up the small shrub. She turned to ‘John’ and said
“Its just the root we need, I’m not going to take it all. I’m just going to cut this part off and then leave the rest of the plant.”
“Are we going to eat that?” ‘John’ was curious and couldn’t see why she should want a root. He began to think of the witches in the stories that his Mom used to read to him – they cooked up strange magic potions.
“The root makes good tummy medicine,” said Suzie, “and we get it for free.”
‘John’ was relieved at that answer and asked
“Can I go and explore, please?”
“Yes, but don’t go out of sight and keep away from the river.”
Suzie and Kevin sat on a fallen tree and watched ‘John’ running around, playing some imaginary role around the trees along the edge of the path. Kevin was the first to speak
“Seems a nice kid. Nobody would just dump a kid, would they?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but you find terrible things in the newspapers.”
“Well yeah, that’s why we don’t bother with them.” Kevin could never see why he should pay to get depressed.
“Look, I’ll drive back to the store in a minute and see if people are looking,” Suzie said. She couldn’t remember seeing any cars or trucks stopped when she went to get the milk.
“Okay,” said Kevin, “I’ll keep an eye on him ‘till you get back, but don’t go telling people that we have a stray kid, we don’t want people poking around here. If they’re looking, they’ll let you know.”
Suzie hurried off, telling ‘John’ that she’d be back in a minute as she passed him. It took her thirty minutes but neither ‘John’ nor Kevin noticed how long it had been. They had been busy making a boat from a piece of bark from a dead tree with a stick for a mast and a leaf for a sail. They were launching it from the bar of pebbles on the river bend when Suzie came back.
“Hey ‘John’ I got you some new clothes,” she said as she got close. ‘John’ took no notice and got the boat launched into the current. It rushed off downstream leaning over as it got buffeted by the eddies. She called again
“Hi John.” He still didn’t notice and Kevin tapped hi shoulder and said
“Suzie’s back and she’s brought you something.” ‘John’ made his way carefully back over the loose pebbles and went to meet Suzie.
“Look ‘John’, I’ve got you some new tee shirts and things from the store,” and she held the bag open for him to see.
“Thank you,’ he said and rushed off down the bank trying to catch up with his bark ship.
Suzie just shook her head at Kevin and he shrugged his shoulders
“Looks like we’ve got a kid. Lot less painful than the usual way, and no diapers.”
“But what about his Mom?” Suzie was trying to imagine how she must feel. Kevin wasn’t so sympathetic,
“You can’t just loose your kid like you can your phone. He was either dumped or he ran off when his folks stopped in Green Ore, and if that’s what happened, they’d ’ve been back looking. Anyway, it’ll be fun to have a kid.”
“I guess so, and we can give home schooling a try.”
“There you go girl, there’s lot of things we can teach him.” It looked to Suzie that Kevin already had plans.
TBC
Oh... what a perfectly pristine pair of paragraphs you penned pertaining to the precipitation at your prominence this morning!
Did you 'pistolize that pre-prandially? (Oops, the dastardly -ly!)