One of the things I look forward to each Sunday is reading Jim
Conrad's Natchez
Naturalist. For a number of years Conrad, who is the author of 6
books and has written more than 200 magazine articles, has lived
in the woods near Natchez, Mississippi where he reports daily
observations of nature and changes to the ecosystem. His reports
are available free each week by email.
Seeing the woodcock was great, but I have to admit that the
highlight of my Christmas Day was purely gustatory.
Earlier, friend Karen Wise had dropped by, leaving a
tangerine specifically to be eaten on Christmas Day. Therefore,
when I packed my bird-walk knapsack with fieldguide, notebook and
cornbread, that tangerine went along.
After several hours of hiking I deposited my pleasantly
weary body next to the black-watered Forest Pond. The air was
still chilly but the sky was lighting up and I was downright
hungry. The cornbread was as good as ever, its wholesome,
baked-odor goodness intensified by the crisp, fresh air, and my
hunger. While eating the cornbread I noticed that I'd forgotten
about the tangerine, so absent-mindedly I peeled the fruit and
began eating tangerine sections along with the cornbread.
The cornbread's homey, earthy mellowness perfectly
complemented the tangerine's sweet, juicy, exotic, celestialness.
The simple meal struck me as perfect for that time and place. In
a quiet, uncomplicated manner, the pleasure of that moment was
simply transcendent. Imagining what the animals around me must
have thought when my odor of tangerine floated to them on the
morning's sun-calmed air, I just had to laugh, and finding
laughter mingling with sunlight and cool, fresh air, I had to
laugh some more.
Unwilling to let go of the moment, once the cornbread and
tangerine were gone, I retrieved the tangerine's peelings and ate
them, too, their perfumy bitterness expressing haiku-like what it
was like being a hermit in chilly sunlight, hunkered next to
black pond-water speckled with green duckweed, on Christmas Day.
Rob is the
founder and editor of the progressive news site robwire.com and is a
frequent contributor to rob.dailykos.com