After last week's sizable snowfall, the countryside here is buried under snow cover so deep that it must be making life real damn hard for local wildlife. Yesterday afternoon, I saw a wild turkey out in the middle of the ocean of snow on the hillside in front of the house, foraging among the few tips of dead vegetation that remain visible. Sparse pickings, the turkey looking cold and desperate.
Along one of the backroads that I sometimes drive for the trip back from Montpelier, there is a mobile home that looks to have been there a long, long time -- planted amid trees, set back from the road a bit. The residents either plow or use a snow-blower in the yard around the house, leaving a wide swath of ground relatively flat, easy to walk on. Making it attractive to wildlife. It may be they also strew food around the yard -- seeds, kitchen waste that might otherwise go into compost -- because every time I go by I see a crowd of wild turkeys, anywhere from 10 to 20 of them.
Horses outside of barns often sport blankets. Three horses in the field at one farm provide a visual thermometer -- in milder temperatures, they wear nothing and range about. The colder it is the closer they huddle together, covered with blankets, heads drooping.
I talked about this with someone at the gym, it brought us both to the same place: gratitude for the simplest, most basic things -- shelter, heat, food. Running water, warm clothing. (Indoor plumbing!)
Just a shot of perspective on a cold day in early February.
España, te echo de menos
rws 3:31 PM [+]
Comments:
Post a Comment