Storm Damage

The driveway took a beating, but going outside to pee, in the clear light of morning, the sassafras and the oak are budded, and I need to leave early, to look closely at the wild black walnut grove that I pass on that trip, to see if the buds are emerging. The walnuts are extremely careful, so their actual growing season, at this latitude, is only four or five months and the buds are tightly protected. A park ranger stops, wondering what I'm doing with my pen-knife and a magnifying glass. Taxes done and I'm getting a few bucks back, I should never have to file again. A celebratory beer at the pub, chat with the staff, stop at Kroger, where, by the gods, there is a large package of short ribs of beef reduced in price, $3.07 for nearly two pounds. As soon as I get home I brown them in bacon fat, then bed them in thick slices of onion and bring chicken broth up to the bottom of the ribs, cover the pan tightly with foil, put on the lid and let them simmer for a couple of hours. While that's cooking I make a pot of baby butter beans with onions caramelized in diced salt-pork. The best side-dish of the year, and the short-ribs are so good I want to call Linda and tell her about them, but I'm pretty sure she has a performance tonight and I wouldn't want to take her off point. Only passion fuels passion, everything else is pornography. Egrets fucking is not a pretty picture. Anhingas. Dugongs. Most of the adults in West Virginia. Shoot for a wet spot, but it might as well be an arm pit. I was looking down today, and I already had collected $1.42 in change, before I found a wad of bills, $110, squeezed out of some tight jeans. Since the advent of skinny jeans I've found quite a bit of money in the Kroger parking lot, between parked cars. I can picture the physics of it, getting into or out of the car. Not unlike rocks coming to the surface in plowed fields. Cory was back from his flash trip to Florida and we talked about the great salt marshes in southern coastal Georgia. I quoted a passage from Sidney Lanier, The Marshes Of Glynn, and the room fell oddly silent. I admit that the rhymes are rather harsh, but these are the first lines I ever memorized for pleasure. I always thought I'd end up pulling crab pots in those salt marshes. I love the smell. Poling a shallow draft boat up a tidal creek is a great way to spend your time. Watching an osprey take a mullet. Watching otters play. Frying fresh fish for dinner. All the disturbance down at the lake, rebuilding the dam and overflow, has vastly extended the range of cattails. Spring cattail shoots are better than wild asparagus, with a nod toward a fruity vinaigrette, and the sure knowledge that you can gather a meal in just a few minutes. Food, fuel, is almost never the issue, what is at stake is your soul. I flip through the deck, the tarot of the moment, and I advise you to cook some greens.