Hopeful leads the way up the big horrible hill, stopping periodically to look back and check on whether I'm still following, which I am--slowly. Why so slow? Well, I'm carrying the camera and I keep getting distracted by glimpses of marvelous things through the trees: a pileated woodpecker and a blue heron, steam rising from round bales, colorful leaves that light up the woods. The trees here are not as brilliantly colorful as those I saw two hours north over the weekend, but they're well on the way. The paw-paws are earning their keep by creating vast swaths of brilliant yellow in the woods, compensating for their refusal to produce fruit this year. (I blame the Easter weekend freeze that decimated fruit trees across the state.)
This is the last day of my fall break and I had really hoped to get the canoe out on the water one last time, but the weather did not cooperate, assaulting us with wind, sleet, rain, and the kind of wet cold that inspires us to put a fire in the fireplace and a mess of chili in the crock-pot. Now that the rain has stopped, I've taken a break from grading to see the fall trees lighting up the woods with color. Tomorrow I'll get back to campus and start slogging on up a hill of committee work and teaching, but today I'm happy to follow Hopeful wherever she cares to lead.
2 comments:
I didn't even know what a paw-paw was until I just Googled it. You, on the other hand, not only know what it is, but understand why it behaved badly and what it's doing to redeem itself. I'm always amazed and entertained, Dr. Hogue!
Last year we had so many paw-paws we were giving them away. Here's a photo:
http://excelsiorbev.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-plethora-of-paw-paws.html
This year, zip, nada, zilch.
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