A Miniature Garden

It warmed up enough to melt the snow, but it's still raining and in the 40's. If nothing else gets us out of the house, Spike will. He has his ways of driving us nuts until we take him for a walk. His preferred walk is up to the meadow and since the weather is supposed to be cold and 'unsettled' all week we decided we'd better take him there when it wasn't actually pouring rain. His unbounded joy on hitting the trail makes the effort worth it even if it is raining, but we managed to dodge the worst of the drops this morning.

We're still keeping him away from the pond because of the newts. He doesn't really realize that there's a pond there, but I think he suspects...
By the time the newts have hatched and gone the pond may have dried up , but by then maybe we'll be able to take him to the beach. This morning we met Jaya, a big well mannered rottweiler who would love to play with Spike. They greeted each other and she began making 'play moves' but Spike doesn't really know how to play and soon put her in her place. He wasn't grumpy about it, but quite definite.

At this time of year I'm always interested in the mini-gardens that begin sprouting from the bank above the trail as it turns back down toward the street. I've put a shot in extras.  It's on the shady side of the hill and the first thing to appear out of last autumn's carpet of leaves is the ferns, followed by the poison oak which is looking quite hearty, already starting to vine up into the trees. This particular oak is rotting from the base and leaning to one side. It is a slow motion drama to see whether gravity or the substantial tap root anchoring it back into the hill will win.

The ground is littered with sticks and twigs because of recent winds. They are all clothed in various kinds of lichen but this one caught my eye because of the unusual icing of brown fungus. I think it looks like developing spores of what we call turkeytail fungus , but they will be retarded in their ability to grow much bigger by the small size of the stick they have chosen to attach themselves to.

Back at the homestead we settled down with a second cup of coffee and the newspaper. There seems to be a growing number of commentaries about our capitalist economy and how much it is about enriching the businesses at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve. I could rant about that but will just confine myself to saying that I am a bit heartened by the increasing attention to our increasingly unethical economic system. Change can never happen until there is awareness. It fits right in with a book I am reading, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson  I should say I am rereading it because my kindle informs me that I read it in 2020, but I have little memory of it aside from the fact that the title did sound familiar.

We're soon off to Dana and Jim's for Sunday supper.