In anticipation of a green spring to come…

I’m a bit lethargic today as sleep was disrupted last night once again by the unsolicited delivery of a stuffed toy mouse, courtesy of my cat Calvin, and thus I slept in longer than usual. I decide on a walk to shake of the remaining sleepiness, and as I’m out of milk at the apartment a stop at the grocery store seems in order too. Moo juice is still one of my favorite drinks, and is held in high regard by my cat too.

Walking under the sprawling branches of the old ginkgo trees near the library which by now all have their distinctly shaped green leaves of spring again, I can see why Goethe loved the ginkgo tree so and why he wrote his famous poem to celebrate it.

Interestingly enough Goethe omitted the letter k from the word Ginkgo in the first draft of his poem as he thought it sounded too harsh. A different era.

Coming back from the store, I opt to walk through one of the many alleys that criss-cross Benicia, rather than trudging down the main street. Next to a tall fence that obscures the view of the lot behind it, something catches my eye: some stacked firewood at the bottom of the fence and a sign up above said same that reads “Stop taking my wood!” Below this stern warning posted by the wood’s owner, the miscreant apparently guilty of this wood theft infraction has posted a response:  “Then why is the wood piled up outside the fence? – signed – the wood chuck”. Apparently a woodchuck with a sense of humor, although perhaps with a more than questionable sense of property rights I muse, continuing my walk.