Fruit Stands and Golden Hills
Here are more pictures from on the road!.... Fruit stands and golden hills.
(Fruits and vegetables for sale from a rickety fruit stand. Cherries and strawberries handed over by a sun-kissed farmer's wife or a scruffy haired local boy saving money for a new bike.)
(Golden hills curving toward the cloud-splotched blue skies. Just over the edge of the hills sit all the good dreams you ever forgot, huddled together like lost kittens, waiting to be scooped up and brought back home.)
I heard two interesting stories about animals today. One of them is actually a story disproving a previous story in which it was reported that fifty-thousand stray dogs are roaming free in Detroit. This makes Detroit sound like a post-apocalyptic town in which shaggy dogs are every where! Rummaging through garbage, chasing cars, living with big packs inside empty houses! But apparently the number was inflated, and although Detroit does have a larger then average stray dog population, there are not fifty thousand of them (according to NPR.). It is still fun to imagine a city of dogs!
The other animal story I heard is that Scrub Jay birds have funerals. When a Scrub Jay finds one of his fallen compatriots, he lets out a chirp to let his fellow Scrub Jays know. Scrub Jays descend from the sky and the trees and surround the dead bird. Together they mournfully let out a series of bird songs, almost as if they were singing a farewell ballad to their fallen friend. This reminds me of once when I was walking my dog in high school. On the side of the road I spotted a dead robin, his wings slack, his legs pointing toward the sky. Next to the dead robin was a live robin looking down and examining the other bird, as if he was trying to figure out what happened to his friend and if his friend would recover. It was very sad because the live robin really seemed distressed at his dead friend.
I heard two interesting stories about animals today. One of them is actually a story disproving a previous story in which it was reported that fifty-thousand stray dogs are roaming free in Detroit. This makes Detroit sound like a post-apocalyptic town in which shaggy dogs are every where! Rummaging through garbage, chasing cars, living with big packs inside empty houses! But apparently the number was inflated, and although Detroit does have a larger then average stray dog population, there are not fifty thousand of them (according to NPR.). It is still fun to imagine a city of dogs!
The other animal story I heard is that Scrub Jay birds have funerals. When a Scrub Jay finds one of his fallen compatriots, he lets out a chirp to let his fellow Scrub Jays know. Scrub Jays descend from the sky and the trees and surround the dead bird. Together they mournfully let out a series of bird songs, almost as if they were singing a farewell ballad to their fallen friend. This reminds me of once when I was walking my dog in high school. On the side of the road I spotted a dead robin, his wings slack, his legs pointing toward the sky. Next to the dead robin was a live robin looking down and examining the other bird, as if he was trying to figure out what happened to his friend and if his friend would recover. It was very sad because the live robin really seemed distressed at his dead friend.