I’m sure that somebody is going to “rat me out” and tell the Portage Park District that I’ve been pulling up plants along the Headwaters Trail. Indeed, I have been doing exactly that but the evidence will show that what I’ve been pulling up is a vast number of invasive weeds known as Garlic Mustard. Actually, it’s kinda cute, in an ugly sort of way, and one thing that I will say in its favor is that It’s easy to pull up. Just grab down by the root and you can get virtually the whole colony/plant to come out in one fell swoop (Or one swell foop…whatever). I haven’t got all of ‘em on our Garrettsville leg of the Trail yet, but I’m working at it (I’ve been walking WAY more lately).
It’s a temptation to switch over to taking out what my landscaper dude calls “smut roses”, those Department of Agriculture errors in judgement which can be found all over the place, especially in what used to be farmland. See, at some point the DoA was promoting these plants to farmers as “natural fences”. Just plant them in the fencerows, the argument went, and they’d grow and spread and thicken to form barriers that would keep the livestock where it belonged, as well as never having to be tightened or replaced as wire and/or electric fences always had to be. Well, somebody forgot to tell the cows (and the horses and sheep and whatever else was out there in the pasture), so they just crashed through wherever they decided that the grass was greener on the other side (Mules and goats just chomped through the thorns anyway). Finding your entire herd in the cornfield is not something that any farmer wants to wake up to, nor is finding out that the roses did not “know their place” and had taken off for “parts unknown” in the woodlot or the backyard or the roadside. The roses went everywhere; I’ve even found them down by the creek in my backyard and springing up in odd spots in the front. Taking my nippers with me on walks down the Trail might be satisfying as to taking out some of the invaders, but I’d run out of daylight before running out of opportunities to get rid of them. And besides, they’re down the slopes to the creek beds and up into the steeps on either side of the Trail–virtually impossible to remove the whole lot, at this point. And…you know, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a real rose blossom on any one of those “smut roses”. “A rose by any other name “ might smell as sweet, but good luck finding anything sweet about these.
Anyway, if I get a misdemeanor arrest for defacing PCPD (Portage County Park District) property, can somebody make bail for me? Or bring the abovementioned cake to the slammer? Oooh, and I found another patch or two of what means there is a shipload of little tiny Dutchmen wandering around the woods by the Trail–pantsless–since their breeches are hanging out to dry. For no good reason, these flowers made me think of the story of Rip Van Winkle. Seems that he went up into the Catskills for respite from a wife who–imagine that–expected him to actually support his family, only to join the little Dutch trolls up there in drinking and bowling (The bowling was said–by grown-ups to children–to be the source of the sound of thunder) followed by “sleeping it off” for quite some time…how long depends on who was telling the story… the drinking probably had something to do with the length of the little nap after the bowling.
I think that the Headwaters Trail needs more signage–good location for another Eagle Scout project, of which there have already been one or two there. Mile markers would be good, maybe a couple of them, for going and coming each way. I notice there are signs about “social distancing” going either way; people have been real good about that. There are signs telling us to “walk on the right, pass on the left”; that’s happening. There is also at least one sign directing horses to stay on the berm. Hoofprints indicate that at least some of the time that is happening, but there is evidence that some of them are not observing the rule, piles of evidence, if you get my drift.
In my walking around, I’ve been noticing all sorts of things, many of which have to do with stuff that will probably not get taken care of for a while, because of the economic disruption that we are currently experiencing. For instance : sidewalk completion, replacement and repair (The worst spots were recently taken care of; the next-worst will have to wait.). There isn’t a school district, a municipality or a county around…or a state, for that matter…that won’t be hurting for some time on account of the fact that their income has been severely compromised, as have the finances of just about everybody else. Hang tough; it’s going to take us awhile to get back to “normal”, whatever that is.
On the other hand, the cats haven’t missed a beat and still look for their dishes to be filled every morning. It’s all about perspective.
Stay healthy.
