The Day My Sky Got Bigger

I've always been content with my little piece of sky. I have to look straight up if I want to see the stars in my backyard and then only if you're not standing under one of the trees. On some very convenient moon cycles, I can set up my telescope in the livingroom where we get a few hours of lower horizon....we even caught a lunar eclipse that way once.
Yesterday, the big walnut tree in our backyard was cut down. (Go Hughie go!!) I really love my tree and the abundant shade that it provided. I love any tree but by no means am I a tree hugger...well...I HAVE hugged that particular one, so maybe I am. But now it is down...not gone, that will be finished tomorrow....
It's passage saddens me somewhat...but I'm getting a bigger sky in return. I'll see more of the sunset, God's signature blessing that signals nightfall every single day. I'll see more of the same stars that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saw. I'm trading off...it's a fair trade.


Inside though....the dog....was.....going....bananas!!!! You see, our roof was being replaced too. Two crews, three trucks, three trailers and all the vehicles belonging to the tree and roofing crew AND the ones that belong to this household. People walking in her backyard, people breaking trees, people pounding overhead and things shaking on the walls. It was time for an outing.

A two minute walk from our house feels like a million miles away. I'm a big fan of the middle of nowhere. It's the closest middle of nowhere I have access to at any given time, so I make do with what I'm blessed with. As we leave the house Blixie tugs at the leash with anticipation, knowing exactly where we are headed. I let her off the leash by the carwash where it always smells like cherry detergent. She is off like a shot.

We walk along the ATV trail at the edge of the stubble fiels. It is quite sandy there and she runs along taking in all the tantalizing fragrances that are unearthed as the snow cover recedes. So many fresh burrows. We follow the drainage ditch between fields to the still frozen bog in the back forty. We spot a deer through the thicket although she has heard us long ago. We slow down to savour the stillness. All you can hear is the distant drone of traffic, a robin, and a long freight train is coming, heading west, laden with double stacks of containers. We have to cross some standing water but there is just enough of the furrow sticking out, still frozen, that my feet stay dry. Blixie, on the other hand, has been places that I choose not to follow. She is covered with mud, sand and burrs(it's been much, much, much worse)....but this is what a happy dog looks like. My spontaneous outing will end with a bath and a haircut, so I stay out a little longer, not ready for chores. We step onto the edge of the bog, find skunk cabbage already starting to poke out, and climb onto the back of an old bent willow to see if we can spot that deer again. Eventually the time comes to round the furthest point of the field. This means that each step will take us closer to home. I slow down even more to stay in the quiet but we're dragged along the rows of corn stubble with its generous infringement of pokeweed. It will be even wider this coming summer since all the prickly pods have burst open scattering seed already. No matter, this dog is happy, she flushed out a ground hog....what's a little grime.