Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Four Corners















After the hawk stalk Saturday, I headed out through my woods to poke around a bit. This post is about my corners.

Down at the "pond",in the southeast corner, a puddle of water remains, but most of the pond looks like the above photo. There seems to be a lot of action going on down there at night. The slowly drying mud has captured a snapshot of some of the comings and goings.















The mysterious enchanted thicket above lies in my northwest corner, a region infrequently visited by me. It is probably one of the quieter corners in a very quiet square of land, a place where the deer can lounge with little interference. The tangley twisted torsion of the sparkleberry bushes is a result of their struggle for light beneath a grove of large oaks. It may look pretty, but it's a silent shoving match for survival.




pokey










In the planted pine grove (sound familiar?) of the southwest corner, a light carpet of pine needles is building up now that the pines have some size to them. The bright little aster poking up through them provided a nice contrasting bit of color to the brown blanket.

And then, there was this in the northeast corner ...






??









I recognize most of the scat I find on my place, but not this little pile.

Any ideas?

Has Christo been camping in my woods without permission?

:)

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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks like paint balls

Deb said...

hmmm...WHAT was that rabbit eating? :)

The "four corners" theme is a good idea; I'll have to try it some time!

Anonymous said...

It's paintballs. Someone has been staging battles in your woods!

Anonymous said...

Loved your 4-corners theme; interesting photos-sad about the pond; other pics quite lovely.

SophieMae said...

Having never actually SEEN a paint ball, I was more inclined to believe the critters had gotten into the Pepto. 8-]

Yes, the four corners idea was inspired. I can't even get to two of my corners without driving about a mile or so up the road, then down another forest road, then walking down the fire lane. Feel free to come visit. Oh, and bring your bush hog. 8-}

That shoving match shot is gorgeous!

SophieMae said...

Almost forgot... the butterfly/frog contrast thing... most people are shocked to learn that the beautiful butterflies don't just sip from the flowers, but have some pretty 'disgusting' eating habits.

Anonymous said...

Well, i've never seen paint balls, but I bet they're pink flamingo eggs...
(j/k)

"The tangley twisted torsion..."

boy, that's a good one. I've got to remember that description....kind of describes my weed garden!

R.Powers said...

Yes, it's paintballs. A cloggy congealed clump of them. They actually first showed up on our porch on the dog bed. The "paint" in paintballs is vegetable oil based and the dogs found this and dragged it up to their nest for a "snack".

roger,
Jr. disavows any knowledge of this strange ammo dump.

Deb,
Crazy rabbit ...
Yes, afterwards I thought 4 Corners might make a good meme.

Betsy,
...and I know who!

MoMadness,
The pond will rebound. I'll post that too.

SophieMae,
Pepto! LOL!
Sounds like you're on a big place.

Laura,
Never.Seen.Paintballs?
Fascinating.
Which came first, the pink flamingo or the ping paintball?

Anonymous said...

I crave low boggy areas. We do have one, a very curious area where the creek apparently runs underground close to the surface and produces what I guess you'd call a fen? I puts me into a tizzy trying to decide whether to let it remain heavily shaded, or to open it up to more sunlight.

Like Laura, I've never.seen.paintballs either. I'd have guessed wolf's milk slime.

R.Powers said...

Wayne,
Okay, I've got to go look up Wolf's Milk Slime.
What a name.

Likes2mtnbike said...

Paintballs!

Likes2mtnbike said...

Ohhh, late for the game again!

R.Powers said...

Likes2mtnbike,
But always welcome!

ImagineMel said...

Ok, can you tell I'm an English teacher and not a Science teacher?? I was frantically trying to think what critter might produce that. My liberal arts background starting
thinking, "wow, what a pretty color for poo! It's so festive!" Thanks to you and your offspring for always making my day!

R.Powers said...

Imaginemel,
And THANKS to you for feeding him!

Rurality said...

Oh, paintballs! Whew. I was afraid something had gone horribly, horribly wrong with the Easter Bunny.

R.Powers said...

Rurality,
As in, being processed by the Easter Hawk?

:)