Scavenging

The forest splits into cracks under the weight of my snow shoes….like small glaciers, breaking apart. I am looking for dry wood, our shed stockpile now down to a few large logs frozen to the ground – solid till spring.
In my gathering I touch the dead trees by the pond. It seems to intimate…feeling its bark, like a skin beneath my ungloved hand. Beneath the crusty gray skin of a deceased birch, the tree is soft and has soaked up water like a sponge—as I move away some sawdust I find an acorn…placed there by a mouse or squirrel for safe keeping. I put it back. Maybe it will return to scavenge its winter store.

Chickadees

Chickadees and I have a special relationship. When I was young, I used to perch on top of the radiator with the cat and watch the Chickadees feeding.

Yesterday I brought more sunflower seeds outside to put in the feeder; the birds were eagerly awaiting their feast. They flew over to feed despite my presence.

That gave me an idea. I put some sunflower seeds in an outstretched palm and waited, still, as one by one, the Chickadees perched on nearby branches inches away, and looked at me quizzically before flying off. After a couple of minutes of this, one brave bird swooped down and perched on the end of my fingertips, without taking a seed.

He flew off again, and then returned, this time taking a seed. Others soon joined until several birds had fed from my hand.
A couple of feet away, one of the resident red squirrels stared at the scene, clucking away, as if to say – hey where’s my share? I almost thought he was going to climb my leg and join the feasting.

Ice Sticks

We have had so many different varieties of snow-stuff this winter season. Friday it poured eye pellets. Driving home was a daze. I got lost between snow tracks and ended up on the left-side of the road at one point.
The next morning, when we got up, ice had glazed trees - trunks and branches. It looked edible. Now that I think about it…reminds me of that song we used to sing as kids: “on the big rock candy mountain.” Does anybody eat rock candy anymore?