Dogbane. Dogbuddy.

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Saturday, Benji and I walked out to the OWASA pumping station where I picked a bundle of dogbane before the first frost was able to touch it: tall crimson stalks that I lashed together and slung over my shoulder, like a quiver of arrows.

USGS map, Carrboro quadrant, 1993 --- the path we walked.
We walked behind the pumphouse, back, along the creek, into a sort-of breathtaking alluvial forest. I take off Benji's leash back there and he leaps through the tall grass, over the fallen trees and old fences, splashes into water puddles, and dives into privet thickets. As we go along, I count the landmarks: an excellent old paw paw stand, two deer blinds, the old river birch that seem to be planted in a row, a lone deer hoof (the rest of it's got to be around here somewhere).


We walk on and on, following the creek until we get to a spot where it bends sharply northeast. Here the water level is noticeably raised (or else the land is lowered). I watch my step to avoid water filled depressions in the plain (Benji dives right in). Where the river turns - just as abruptly - back southeast, I stop and listen to a great sucking sound very close. A tree has fallen across the creek, and branches are jammed around it. Grass is even growing from caked mud mounded on top. Looking across the creek, I can see the whole plain on that side is flooded. The water whooshes over one spot of the jamb, dropping a whole foot or more.

We go all the way to the golf course (just a bit further). The contrast of golf course to the forest is stark. I think about walking the long way home: around the golf course on the street, but I figure that someone may think my dogbane is a real quiver of arrows and might call the police. So, we tramp back through the forest, past the rest of that deer, and around the pump station. Benji is so excited by this point that I need to wave a stick so that he'll stop running around and come back to me.


We go back to our house and make it just in time for dinner with Susan: one big happy family!

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