Red on snow
Thursday, January 20, 2005Yesterday I ventured into the snow to check and see how the oil tanks are doing...the outside tank doesn't have a meter on it, I have to use a very long wooden fold up ruler to dip it once in a while. I noticed, very bright on the fresh snow, scores of feathers. Rust red and grey tail feathers, the dark grey of down, spread an impossible distance, the lightest coating of snow holding them in place and filling in fresh cat tracks. A small smear of blood was the only other evidence...I picked up some of the feathers, saddened, realizing it was probably Mrs. Cardinal, who I bore an especial affection for, having watched her and her husband cuddling together in trees, and him fetch her and feed her seeds and bread. Watching them I thought, that's the right kind of marriage.
Deer tracks are very thick in the snow...but none have sought shelter against the house this year. (Yet. Also, so far, they've not chewed much on the things they shouldn't.) Also, I saw a huge gang of turkeys...thirty at least...(If there are murders of crows, parliaments of rooks, terrors of sharks, is there a name for a group of turkeys?) pass my house. They supped on the hillside above, then went across for a leisurely drink. I love when they settle for the night, especially if it's snowed, because you can see these huge black blobs in the trees, hear the chucking of their gobbles as they get ready to try and keep warm and sleep.
Also am a very bad plant mother. My ivy died, and one of my Christmas Cactuses isn't looking very happy. The other one is thriving, though, blooming, even. I love watering plants. They smell green. And happy.
Two things I learned today:
Pre-mixed plaster in a bucket can get moldy and rot, rendering itself useless. And it sticks a real horror. Like rancid sewage.
Standing over a heating grate while dying your hair is not wise. (I wear glasses, and have to take them off to dye my hair, right? And there are only two mirrors in the bathroom...the one over the sink, which puts me too far away to see, and the one over the heating vent. So, I was standing on the heating vent, the blower came on, and blew a thickly coated piece of hair right in my eye. I screamed like a little girl for mommy, all the while flushing out my eye and saying intelligent things like, "Ow! *&^! Oooowww!" By the time she got there my eye was cleaned out, but I think she was happy that I still call for her when I'm really panicky. Urm.)
Permalink Cindy scribed this at 11:27 PM
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g d townshende, at
7:49 PM
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10:04 AM