Gnomic Tales

Think small. Look closely. The shorter the walk, the more attentive. Oak galls; in all their variety, caught my attention. I collected a dozen to take back home and examine. First I slit them and squeeze out a few drops of juice, which is often quite sweet, then I cut them open to see what critter caused the gall. Usually one of those small wasps that you almost never see unless you hang around rotting fruit. An almost perfect full moon (tomorrow) rising over the opposite ridge and when It gets above the tree-tops it is stunning; I pull my Selma rocking chair, hand-built, rush-bottomed, into the middle of the room, where the light falls, have a drink and a smoke; once, in Utah, I was able to read by moonlight. My mentor at the time, a very old Navaho, told me we see when we need to, that most of what we processed was garbage. We met at the laundromat, where the sound of our conversation would be drowned out by the dryers, and he drew maps for me. He related that no one else gave a shit, and that my sorry, skinny white ass would have to do. I know it pained him. It would pain me, does in fact, that no one, any longer, cares. But he steered me to a couple of great sites. One, my favorite, was a blind canyon with a spring. There's an artesian spring outside of Moab, a crazy, gravity defying thing, and another just above Desolation Canyon, coming into Utah from the east. I always fill any empty jug. Force of habit. Found a nice stand of chanterelles out near the graveyard, walking about rather aimlessly, and I filled my Key Lime mesh plastic bag. They were a bit dirty, so when I got back to the house, I used a can of compressed air to clean them. This works very well with a relatively dry mushrooms. I put one batch in the dehydrator, rough chop the other batch for a meal. Finely mince an onion, fry them in a mixture of butter and olive oil, sprinkle on some toasted garbanzo flour to thicken, and have them on toast. The fox was back, alone, the kits having moved on, and I rolled her a few apples. She yipped a couple of times and it was almost like having a conversation. Her coat is lovely now, sleek and full, and her tail is quite beautiful.