While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons, I trust that nothing can make life a burden to me. -Walden, Thoreau
Wilson's Pasture: the forty acre field near where Dad grew up in Fayetteville. In the winter dawn, Dad says, the song of birds was overwhelming. Dad tosses his hands up in the air, unable to convey the sense of that loud and lost symphony. Far greater than these days, he says, now just peeps and occasional chatter.
Outside Dad's window; a flock of robins, a lone junco, a red-bellied woodpecker on the trunk of a big, white pine, and a downy woodpecker moving along a branch of the same. This morning; a "herd" of squirrels, six, devouring sunflower seeds. Maybe my uncle will look up the correct word for such a group.
7 comments:
Well, now, squirrels are generally solitary animals. They do not have a hierarchical structure, and therefore, no group name has ever been established. It's altogether unusual to see a gathering of them; in this case, it is apparently due to the scrumptious food source--laid out by a caring, compassionate niece I happen to know??.
"The steeples swam in amethyst, the news like squirrels swam."
~Emily Dickinson
I should mention that the squirrels in this area are red squirrels. I've seen a mix of gray and red only as far east as KC, incidentally, the first time I ever even saw a gray squirrel! The color gray seems a little sad on a squirrel, but maybe that's because I grew up with the pretty ones. :)
Should we call it a "school" of squirrels then?
Why, yes, a School of Squirrels!
But you raise an issue more suitable to a School for Scandal. Such scurrilous implications regarding my beloved, perky gray squirrels! All I have to say is, MAY THEY OCCUPY YOUR ATTIC SPACES! I've gone so far as to put out the word to Edgar. Beware! He is all a-quiver over this!
Red squirrels rule!
Edgar gasps, and exclaims, "Heartless!"
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