Friday, April 24, 2009

Mulberries and Mosquitos



I'm visiting my family in South Georgia for a couple days and finally got a chance to go out for some journaling with my nephew, who is nine and also likes to draw nature.  We wandered about looking for something interesting until he chose a small oak tree with bright green, lobed leaves at the edge of the woods. We settled in the grass to draw. High above us in a long leaf pine, a red-bellied woodpecker kept us company.  His steady knock, knock, knock on the trunk was a nice sound.  Then came another not-so nice sound- the whiney buzzzz of a mosquito.  SLAP!  Then another whiney buzzzzzzzz.... SLAP!  Some we didn't hear, but saw them out of the corner of our eyes as they came in for a landing. SLAP!

Slap, slap, slap, slap...

We drew in our journals until we couldn't stand it then jumped up and moved to another spot.

In the side yard, where a breeze found us and kept away "the little bloodsucking beasts" (quoting my nephew), we found a mulberry tree full of unripe berries.  I saw a bird eating the berries and crept closer to identify him.  The closer I got the more birds I saw - in fact the tree was full of Cedar Waxwings, hopping from branch to branch, tugging at, picking, and gorging on the berries.  I carefully picked a small branch and took it away to draw, so as not to disturb the diners.

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