Birch.
We tend to seek out the familiar. A favorite mug with just the right heft. A chair with wear spots from how we sit and a view out the proper window. We know just how to mow our particular patch of grass. We smile at familiar faces. Our homes are the homes we come home to, and we commute the same roads to get there. Occasionally we must take a break—to seek out strange places, novel sights, new skies, a different feel. But at the end of the day, we wash our familiar face and step out of our familiar shoes.
Still, I suppose I might be drawn more insistently than most to sweet routine. Perhaps that explains my cycling urge, my daily hike up Beech Hill. And my love affair with a certain young birch tree that stands along the trail. Not only the birch–with its perfect symmetry, its three-pronged trunk, its glow—but also the vegetation around its base, that stone, the little oak beyond. And the lumps of the distant hills that rise against a changing sky.
And that’s not all that changes, the sky. The color of the surrounding landscape changes from green to russet to white. And the clothing of the oak itself—or, in this season, the lack of it. Just a few leaves still clung to the crown today in a ephemeral-seeming cluster. Like a fading memory.
Other young birches surround my tree, but this one belongs to me.
I managed to ride my bike today and hike with my favorite dog. I counted a few familiar birds. And I took familiar photo.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Tufted titmouse
2. Hairy woodpecker (voice)
3. White-breasted nuthatch (voice)
4. Black-capped chickadee (voice)
5. American robin
6. White-throated sparrow (voice)
Elsewhere
7. American crow
8. House sparrow
9. Herring gull
10. Rock pigeon
11. Ring-billed gull
12. American coot
13. Bufflehead
14. Mourning dove
15. Northern cardinal
Tags: American coot, American crow, American robin, black-capped chickadee, bufflehead, hairy woodpecker, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, white-throated sparrow
