“Big
picture! Big picture!” the Artist frequently reminds me when he sees me
scanning the ground at my feet. He’s right to find the big picture important –
and I love it, too (see the one above), but little things also form a big part
of my world. Sometimes I’m looking for special stones, but I may just as often
be seeking clues about who’s been down the road earlier in the morning. Were
there deer? Coyotes? Someone walking a dog? Birds or snails, snakes or mice?
Yes,
I see the big picture. At this time of year, the bright colors in the landscape
are impossible not to see.
But
in every season there is some particular tree or plant that grabs my attention day after day and won’t let go. This autumn it’s wild grapevine that I can’t help seeing
everywhere. One arduous morning spent tearing and cutting and pulling vines on
part of our home property sensitized me to its presence in the passing scenery – climbing
trees, clambering over fences, clinging to and nearly smothering everything
that will give it a foothold.
In
the plant’s defense, we must note that it is native to this area, and its fruit
is edible. On
the downside, the vine recognizes no boundaries. And
some years, I’ve noticed, you can search and search without finding any grapes
on the vines. Did wildlife get them all, or did the vines simply not bear that
year? Well, it isn't as striking in the landscape as the bright fall scarlet of Virginia creeper, but it makes a good contrast.
Some
wild foods require far more work than others to harvest and store. I can spend
evening after evening contentedly peeling and slicing wild apples (my eye is especially attuned for wild apples in the landscape) for the food dryer
(drying fruit concentrates its sugar, so the tartest wild apples become
palatable in dried form), but one year of hulling and shelling black walnuts
was enough for me. Anyway, the squirrels depend on them to fill their winter
larder, so I'll just gather them up and leave them for the squirrels.
