Morning Chill
There have been a couple of days this week where it was so cold outside that we postponed our usual morning dog walk. We just couldn't face the nose-numbing frost. But I've found that I get stir crazy by 11am if I don't have my walk, forget about how antsy the dog gets.
So this morning, we bundled up and braved the outdoors. The sky was crystal clear, and the thermometer hovered at 31 degrees. For some reason, Lola wanted to go "the long way" (probably because she remembered that her walk yesterday was later than usual, and shorter!), so we circled the whole neighborhood and ended up in the park. It is always surprising to me how quiet our area can be in the morning. Do most people get up later than we do? There was only one sign of life, an idling car in a driveway. Otherwise, all the homes were tightly sealed and certainly no one else was out walking. Even the birds were too cold to get up this morning. The only ones I saw were four crows in flight.
The crows have pretty much taken over our neighborhood. They used to be limited to a family that lived in one tall tree next door. Then that tree got cut down, and the crows formed an alliance with some other crow families, and in retribution for removing their habitat, have started a crow gang that has intimidated all the other birds in the block. They like to pick the walnuts from the trees and then drop them onto the street to crack them. They swoop down and eat cat food from the porch. They caw and caw and scare the other birds from the feeder.
The grass in the park was completely white with frost. I played catch with Lola (reluctantly, because she will only retrieve if the thrower has a treat as a reward for her, and I didn't want to take my glove off to pull the treat out of my pocket). Her paws made silver tracks across the white grass. The silence of the neighborhood continued. The dogs that live on the perimeter of the park did not even bark from inside the house. We quickly walked home, to try to restore blood to our limbs. The crows flew by once more.
So this morning, we bundled up and braved the outdoors. The sky was crystal clear, and the thermometer hovered at 31 degrees. For some reason, Lola wanted to go "the long way" (probably because she remembered that her walk yesterday was later than usual, and shorter!), so we circled the whole neighborhood and ended up in the park. It is always surprising to me how quiet our area can be in the morning. Do most people get up later than we do? There was only one sign of life, an idling car in a driveway. Otherwise, all the homes were tightly sealed and certainly no one else was out walking. Even the birds were too cold to get up this morning. The only ones I saw were four crows in flight.
The crows have pretty much taken over our neighborhood. They used to be limited to a family that lived in one tall tree next door. Then that tree got cut down, and the crows formed an alliance with some other crow families, and in retribution for removing their habitat, have started a crow gang that has intimidated all the other birds in the block. They like to pick the walnuts from the trees and then drop them onto the street to crack them. They swoop down and eat cat food from the porch. They caw and caw and scare the other birds from the feeder.
The grass in the park was completely white with frost. I played catch with Lola (reluctantly, because she will only retrieve if the thrower has a treat as a reward for her, and I didn't want to take my glove off to pull the treat out of my pocket). Her paws made silver tracks across the white grass. The silence of the neighborhood continued. The dogs that live on the perimeter of the park did not even bark from inside the house. We quickly walked home, to try to restore blood to our limbs. The crows flew by once more.
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on Friday, December 03, 2004 at 8:50 AM.
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