Usual Patterns

Generally the end of the morel season coincides with the beginning of the snake season, but today I encountered a rattlesnake (that same yellow Timber Rattler, I'm convinced, that closed out last season) in a flush of mushrooms that I would not be denied. I went back to the house and got a couple of firecrackers. Snakes hate explosions. She went slithering away and I harvested morels for a couple of meals. A female rattlesnake, thicker and shorter than a male would be, but with a menacing look in her eye. If you've never looked a rattlesnake in the eye, you should, they're incredibly intense, or at least come across as being intense, unblinking and focused. Slant-eyed and dangerous. I love the way sumac breaks into leaf, always at the very top of last year's growth, buds up and down the stem, but the first leaves unfurl at the top, a kind of crown. A frost forecast for tonight, but I think the cold will tumble down into the bottoms. All of those houses on Mackletree will be impacted, but I doubt the temps will get below 40, up here, ensconced as I am, where the hickory and the black walnut have so far refused to bud. Not unlike Olinda, back in high school, who refused to french kiss until after the second date. Being invested takes on new meaning. I hadn't remembered I remembered her so completely. That swell of breast just below the armpits, high, firm, artificial breasts, that seem to indicate something. Not that her's were. I have to go.