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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer February 23, 2004- - No. 23 |
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The land is snow covered and quiet, uninterrupted by human activity. A sense of waiting hangs in the cool, gray, quiet, late February air. Woodlands that boarder the fields have been abandoned of such activities as firewood cutting, logs being hauled out for lumber, deer and small game hunting, cross country skiing and the odd hiker that may come through. Brandy Creek, meandering its way through these woods, is still frozen in the clutches of winter that have not released its hold for many weeks. The now off-white blanket of snow has settled some over the past few days, under sun filled skies. Daytime temperatures rise to slightly above freezing.
High among the barren branches of a large oak, within the brush filled fence line to the West, can be heard the bleak caw caw of a solitary crow. That very black bird against a colorless sky, its ageless call coming from all directions of the compass, forewarns of the change in season lurking just beyond the horizon.
The quiet of winter will not last much longer. Sap rising in the maples will soon bring the sugar maker to the grove that surrounds the sugar shack, not yet unshuttered since last seasons work. The snow will burn off in circles around the bases of those large silvery barked trees now waiting and reaching for the warmth of spring. The air is changing, the waiting almost over, a new season is just around the corner. |
