Musing with Max

Musing with Max

September 1, 2013

Where the wild things grow

I take Max for a walk every morning. Frank used to take him when I worked in New York since I took a very early train and he worked from home but now it's the reverse. Frank has to take a very early train to commute to the hinterlands of Brooklyn and I work in New Jersey, a blissful 20 minute commute from home. So every morning somewhere around 6:45 am I kiss the top of his head, put his leash on, grab a couple of poopy bags and off we go. During the weekday mornings it's always the same walk, we make a left and walk towards the park which is two blocks away. This is somewhat deceiving, we live in the middle of the block so the first part is really half a block and the following block is extremely long so it's more like three. On one side which is the side we walk over on there are two houses, then a school and schoolyard and ten houses. We cross the street make a right in front of the park walk up a bit and cross back on our return across the way from the block I just described. Across from those ten houses and most of the school there is an open field which borders a creek. The town maintains the field by keeping the lawn mowed and cleaning the snow off the sidewalk in the winter and trimming the trees when needed since it is in a residential area. There is a tall chain link fence bordering the creek, probably for safety's sake, and there are all kinds of greenery growing which thankfully cover the fence, nothing too distinctive. Except in late Summer when all of a sudden some very interesting plant life suddenly appears. Like this for instance,


I haven't got a clue what this is but it's all over the place. It has white star shaped flowers and just cascades


and climbs sort of like honeysuckle or jasmine without any aroma. I've yanked some off and brought it home but it doesn't last in a vase. I guess it needs the outdoors. Then there's this,


also a bit of a vine with beautiful oak shaped leaves and these purple and green berries. And then there's


this beauty which I think speaks for itself. And this little cutie


which just makes me smile...but not as much as this does


even though he's not the least bit interested

so home we go.

3 comments:

  1. Now I'm pretty good on my plants but - nope - I don't recognise any of those! What a lovely part of your walk (although I think at that time of the morning my eyes would be waaay too blurry to see anything)! Jane x

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  2. I think the first one is autumn blooming clematis. I think the birds help distribute the seeds. Don't know the second one. The third one is Japanese knotweed; the stems look like bamboo. It's extremely invasive and almost impossible to get rid of. Roundup won't touch it. I don't know the last one but it is very pretty. But nothing is as cute as Max.

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  3. What a lovely walk. Not as much fun in winter, I bet. I had to laugh when I read the clause "I kiss the top of his head" I thought you meant Frank, then I got to the leash part and was pretty sure it was Max.

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