The Walk

A slight cool spell swept into the area and dropped the morning temperature back into the middle 60's.  It made the daily walk, with the ever so entertaining Runtly, the Jack Russell Terrier, even better.  Runtly likes cool morning walks.

We skirt the outside edges of our little community and now that school is out, there is very little traffic in the mornings.  The many grey squirrels provide endless entertainment for the Runt, although he probably would not know what to do with it, if he ever caught one.  

The geese are molting, as they do every year, and the ground is littered with feathers of all shapes and sizes.  Some days, Runtly proudly carries a long wing feather in his mouth, as if he has won a trophy of the highest award.  The goslings are in various stages of growth.  The older ones are beginning to resemble their parents in a fuzzy sort of way.  The middle stage of the goslings' growth makes them appear like small velociraptors, as they try to keep up with the rest of the flock.  A funny thing about geese is that when they molt, they are all rendered flightless at the same time. Perhaps a perk of nature, to keep the adults from taking flight when the kids are driving them crazy.  One more thing about geese, before we round the corner to pass the tiny village, they live a really long time, over 30 years.

The tiny village lays to our right.  Runtly has never taken notice of this place.  There is a fence that runs along the border of the property.  On the other side of the fence is the back side of a small strip mall, but it sits several feet higher than our path.  The backside of the fence has many years of leaves and pine needles compacted against it.  It gives the fence the appearance of being one of those ant farms, in the clear container so the viewer can watch all the comings and goings of the ants. It is not ants that make this area interesting, although there are surely hundreds of them in there, this is where the chipmunks live. Their tunnels and paths are visible against our side of the fence and on occasion, they can be seen darting through them.  

The path between the ponds is covered in a canopy of pine boughs and brings to the walk, a true feeling of the closeness of nature. The tall pines are home to many feathered creatures and there is usually an ongoing chorus of chirps and tweets, if one takes the time to really listen.  A red shouldered hawk banks sideways through the trees and crosses our path, the chorus becomes suddenly silent.  No one wants to be called dinner.

A distant siren greets us at the end of the path, giving Runtly a perfect reason to cut short his part of the walk.  He does not like sirens and is more than ready to go inside.  Walking dogless means no more stops.  No more stops to do his business, stops to smell some new scent, or stops to find something to roll in. Finishing the walk alone helps to keep a constant pace and the path begins its descent to the lake.  The walk back up the hill takes a lot longer.  

Looking down on this place from above, we could see what might resemble the Matryoshkas, the Russian nesting dolls.  This small place, lies within another slightly larger place, that lies within another slightly larger place and on and on.  Each one of those places touches the other, so, we are never too far from where we started our journey.