Grow, You Little Fuckers
I admit that I talk to my plants to encourage them to grow. I find myself doing it and don't realize at first that I'm actually saying what I'm thinking. And I don't say cute fuzzy things to them. I say things like, "Grow, you little fuckers, grow." But I mean it with the greatest of affection.
My summer squash have germinated. I love the way plants look when they're just coming up through the soil.
The other day when M. and I were coming home, we saw the craziest thing: hundreds of swallows flying down the river, right over the surface, for a few hundred feet. Then they'd wheel back around, fly up the river a few hundred feet, and fly down the river again, skimming the surface. I imagine they were feeding on some kind of insect that's at the surface of the water.
The last few days I've noticed that they live in the rocks that are piled up on the side of the road next to the river. They come swooping down out of the rocks, over my head, and out over the river. The road climbs up higher and higher as it parallels the river, and the river gets further and further down off the side of the road. The sparrows seem to enjoy zooming out of their hidden places in the rock crevices, and then diving down like little kamikaze pilots to the river surface. Today I walked down to the river and I went through the area where the sparrows dive from the rocks down to the river. There were seriously hundreds of them swooping down over and across my head. They weren't behaving aggressively, as sparrows sometimes do when you walk too close to their nests, but they did seem to enjoy swooping in a bit at me and Siris, and then swooping away to the river. They seemed like they were having a blast.
It was really difficult to photograph. They're small, fast as hell, and the sun was between me and them. I did get a few photos, where some were resting on the wires, but I couldn't get the masses of them wheeling through the air, unfortunately. I'm thinking about getting a better camera.
My first guess was raccoon, but the toes in this track are kind of short and are separated from the pad, which doesn't match with raccoon. So now I'm thinking skunk.
My summer squash have germinated. I love the way plants look when they're just coming up through the soil.
 |
| Tomatoes |
 |
| Basil |
The last few days I've noticed that they live in the rocks that are piled up on the side of the road next to the river. They come swooping down out of the rocks, over my head, and out over the river. The road climbs up higher and higher as it parallels the river, and the river gets further and further down off the side of the road. The sparrows seem to enjoy zooming out of their hidden places in the rock crevices, and then diving down like little kamikaze pilots to the river surface. Today I walked down to the river and I went through the area where the sparrows dive from the rocks down to the river. There were seriously hundreds of them swooping down over and across my head. They weren't behaving aggressively, as sparrows sometimes do when you walk too close to their nests, but they did seem to enjoy swooping in a bit at me and Siris, and then swooping away to the river. They seemed like they were having a blast.
It was really difficult to photograph. They're small, fast as hell, and the sun was between me and them. I did get a few photos, where some were resting on the wires, but I couldn't get the masses of them wheeling through the air, unfortunately. I'm thinking about getting a better camera.
Siris is loving these walks down to the river. After a hot walk, he gets to take a dip and take a few drinks.
There are, of course, lots of tracks next to the river. Some I recognize easily, like dogs and coyotes and ducks and geese. I'm wondering about this one, though:
My first guess was raccoon, but the toes in this track are kind of short and are separated from the pad, which doesn't match with raccoon. So now I'm thinking skunk.
Comments
Post a Comment