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| Hepatica |
PATRIOTS DAY
Patriots’ Day in Boston, when the weather cooperated, was a day to check out
the garden, clear some of the debris of winter, maybe put in a few hardy
plants. Unless this was one of
those Patriots’ Days when I would get out of bed at five o’clock to see the
reenactment on the Lexington Battle Green, the shaggy Minute Men facing the
red-coated British regulars. After
seeing the morning reenactment, it was nearly impossible––too tired!––to
consider going to watch the Boston Marathon, so we usually ended up watching it
live on television. Just about
everyone I knew watched it on TV or saw it live whether they cared about
running or not. Of course I was
there the year Lesley officially ran it in 1997 with the Dana Farber team, the same
year Ken walked the whole 26 miles (afterward taking a taxi home to make dinner
for all of us).
Unforgettably marred, this rite of spring, by the bombings near the Marathon
finish line. It will not be easy
to watch another race without remembering this one––the one that never finished
on a beautiful day in spring, the day evil exploded. From the descriptions of the bombs it was clear the bomber
wanted to hurt and maim people, and spoil something that was lighthearted and
fun. It wasn’t the usual
stereotypical target an international group seems to like, but a target created
out of anger and bitterness and hatred, and by someone who took the trouble to
learn––or knew well––the rhythm of the Marathon.
Enough.
SPRING REVELATIONS
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| The Adirondack "alps" from Buck Mountain |
There are some things you can see this time of year that you won’t see
anymore once spring is in full bloom.
The grass will slowly cover over the trails that were made under the
snow in winter by moles or mice.
The Adirondacks will look less like alps when their snow has
melted. Hepatica,* the first
flower we’ve spotted blooming in the forest, will be succeeded by other, bolder
blossoms. At first we saw only a few clumps of flowers, but once we began looking beyond just the trail we could see it everywhere in the forest.
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| Hepatica comes in white, |
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as well as purple (and pink, top photo)
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| Mole trails in the grass |
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| Mole trail, showing the mole hole |
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| During the winter some critter excavated underneath the concrete patio |
Our pond, clear now, has been visited by breeding pears of ducks (Mallards and Mergansers) and geese (migrating Canadian) all of whom, after
checking us out, will doubtless settle
on larger bodies of water for their spring and summer homes. We've had no long term residents.
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| Hooded Merganser who visited with his less colorful mate (out of the frame) |
I don’t know much about deer behavior in
the spring; we spotted them in the late afternoon or early evening in the field
not far from the house for several days in a row, but on the last day visiting
dogs Sadie and Scamper darted out after them and chased them back into the
woods. We haven’t seen any deer
since.
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| Three of the deer group in our field, just days before the grass began to green |
Just a few short weeks ago
we had had our final cross country ski.
It had a finality in actual fact:
the path we ski on from behind our house in the morning to where it
joined a ski mobile trail to route 17 melted before our eyes. By afternoon we would have had to take our skis off and walk
back.
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| Ken (right) with Allan Ames (left) on our last ski |
Buck Mountain, behind our house, was our first (modest) climb of the season. It was from this point that we looked over to the mountains in the photo at top, and it was here we spotted the hepatica.
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A still pond halfway up Buck Mountain, in wait for greening
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| Ken en route up Buck Mountain |
*Hepatica, known also by less attractive
names––liverwort, kidneywort, pennywort––is a member of the buttercup family.
