Post Four

     I drank tea today, and I thought about it, maybe a bit too much, but whatever. Tea has an interesting position in the United States. It's like a beverage of thinkers, of people who write blog posts and enjoy little things. Hot tea is a ritualistic beverage, it's a time where people can slow down, they kind of have to. The water must be heated, and the tea must be steeped, sweetened if you're into that, then drunk slowly, because it's hot. I guess that's why it seems to attract ponderers and readers and people like that.

    Alright, enough with the rambles. I am in Delaware today, but this is not a Delaware post. There will be a Delaware post once all my adventures in Delaware are done. I have things to talk about. The last few weeks. 

    I went with Joscelyn out on an adventure out to the river, the western side of the northern bank. I didn't take a single picture of her, and I hate that. There were woodpeckers, crow, robins, and blue jays out there with us. Frogs too. I remember at least eight. They were rather calm about the two of us intruding into their domain, so long as their "look, but don't touch" policy was complied with. Much calmer than the songbirds, whose friendship must be won through stillness, and kindness in the case of the crow. 

    The thing about crows is that they will remember your face, and they will associate it with any kindness or meanness you give them. If you put out food for them, and do it regularly, they may begin to trust you. Having a birdbath also helps. They will trust you, they will know you, but they will not befriend you. 

    Crows are the wisest ones in the forest, and in the neighborhood built on the forest. They know that the place is still theirs. We are tolerated, barely.

       And so the two of us were tolerated. 

    Due to recent rains water was everywhere. There were spots underwater that normally weren't, but that was good for the frogs. I hope any fish that found their way up to the flooded spots from the river eventually made their way back. The path was muddy, but we expected that. It wasn't nearly enough mud to get in the way of our fun. 

    There was an unexpected patch of bamboo a ways down the trail. I didn't take a picture of it but it was pretty interesting. I should've taken a picture. Honestly, I didn't take nearly enough pictures on that hike. I guess I was just too enthralled by Joscelyn to think much about picture-taking.

    What eventually got in the way was a deep creek right near the bank of the river. It wasn't really passable, so we turned around and went to eat lunch.

        
    So I guess that was my main outdoor adventure since I last wrote. Here's some other miscellaneous pictures. 

    On the way to Delaware we drove through Pennsylvania, a beautiful state. I got this picture of the Susquehanna river. In the distance you can see the cooling towers on Three Mile Island, site of the most significant accident on a commercial nuclear plant in US history. Fortunately, the accident didn't turn into a huge disaster like Fukushima or Chernobyl. Parts of the plant where the accident occurred were destroyed and are no longer usable, but safety systems designed to keep people in the surrounding area worked.  The accident did sour public opinion of nuclear energy though, and severely slowed the growth of the nuclear power industry.