Ice Is Out
Cold on my walk, about 20, with a wind. All the ice out, except on both shores, where it clings yet as a white beach to ten or fifteen feet out. Three days ago there was just a little water-breach along the East bank, like a meandering stream. The next day, over night, 3/4 of the ice was gone, and over last night, the rest. Strange to see the wide river as open water in the middle of the winter.
The beavers seem not present. I checked where I thought their burrow might be. There are three large trees that yet hold that bank from collapsing. Their roots are undercut, leaving a tangle extending for or five feet up from the gravel of the river bed, which in low water now extends out several feet as a flat margin of narrow shore.
I walked on that margin, peering in through the roots. The three trees are separated each by about twenty feet. It does appear that within those roots there has been a warren of activity. I couldn't establish pathways, but there was something through that tangle that seemed somewhat the arch of hallways, and under the southern most tangle, high up, there appeared a hole disappearing into the bank. I couldn't get my face close enough to peer into it, so can't for certain say that it extended deeply, and it did seem to constrict to only eight inches in diameter, which seems very small for animals so large. Still, if there is a burrow, that's where it's at.
I know the beavers hadn't been there because there were no tracks in the light snow that fell early last evening. Tomorrow perhaps I'll take a flash light and see if I can make better judgments.
Note: Though it was cold, and I'd carelessly dressed one layer shy of warmth, I still was happier with the weather than yesterday when it was so spring-like. Today was winter weather. It's winter. I seem to prefer that the weather be appropriate to the season.
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On the present state of our Republic. It's my idea that the most important part of the Presidency is keeping the other party from having it. Except in foreign policy, the President doesn't really have to do much. If one party has both the Executive branch and the Legislative, the Congress can do all the stuff that's important and the President can just sit there, or maybe give a speech now and then, or shoot some hoops. That may be the Democrat/Obama model. Obama will be media, Nancy and Harry will run the country. That could work. --If it come to be accepted by the country that Obama is just royalty, with no real function, he may very well remain popular, because who's going to bother to dislike a guy who in fact doesn't do anything? Could happen. Change.
It is intriguing that so many people have a need to believe in this guy. I don't understand it. It is going to be interesting to see how Obama plays his role, how the press plays that role playing... --I just have no idea who's making decisions, except that it's perhaps anybody who can.
The beavers seem not present. I checked where I thought their burrow might be. There are three large trees that yet hold that bank from collapsing. Their roots are undercut, leaving a tangle extending for or five feet up from the gravel of the river bed, which in low water now extends out several feet as a flat margin of narrow shore.
I walked on that margin, peering in through the roots. The three trees are separated each by about twenty feet. It does appear that within those roots there has been a warren of activity. I couldn't establish pathways, but there was something through that tangle that seemed somewhat the arch of hallways, and under the southern most tangle, high up, there appeared a hole disappearing into the bank. I couldn't get my face close enough to peer into it, so can't for certain say that it extended deeply, and it did seem to constrict to only eight inches in diameter, which seems very small for animals so large. Still, if there is a burrow, that's where it's at.
I know the beavers hadn't been there because there were no tracks in the light snow that fell early last evening. Tomorrow perhaps I'll take a flash light and see if I can make better judgments.
Note: Though it was cold, and I'd carelessly dressed one layer shy of warmth, I still was happier with the weather than yesterday when it was so spring-like. Today was winter weather. It's winter. I seem to prefer that the weather be appropriate to the season.
--------------
On the present state of our Republic. It's my idea that the most important part of the Presidency is keeping the other party from having it. Except in foreign policy, the President doesn't really have to do much. If one party has both the Executive branch and the Legislative, the Congress can do all the stuff that's important and the President can just sit there, or maybe give a speech now and then, or shoot some hoops. That may be the Democrat/Obama model. Obama will be media, Nancy and Harry will run the country. That could work. --If it come to be accepted by the country that Obama is just royalty, with no real function, he may very well remain popular, because who's going to bother to dislike a guy who in fact doesn't do anything? Could happen. Change.
It is intriguing that so many people have a need to believe in this guy. I don't understand it. It is going to be interesting to see how Obama plays his role, how the press plays that role playing... --I just have no idea who's making decisions, except that it's perhaps anybody who can.
posted by mouse at 8:50 PM
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