American, Express

   One of the members of my cabinet is the Paper Czar, who rules paper and has been slacking on the job by leaving things unattended, defiled and unsorted. There is a method to this madness. It provides a precious opportunity to go on the paper trail in order to discern the sources, uses and disposition of these items.

   A brief survey of the territory: it looks like some of the papers have declared anarchy. Others sit in silent protest. Some may be ignored, only to be followed up with persistent and insistent reminders that change colors like the terrorist alert. Some have their holding patterns, their right places, their spots. I wouldn’t change them.

    Observe how well the Paper Czar has instituted the pile system!  Advice to  handle things only once has been disregarded. Very good. What does this say? Why be efficient? The mystery deepens. To what system does Paper Czar adhere? 

    A cursory inspection indicates the Paper Czar employs a variation of the determinants: useful, beautiful, interesting  and  in keeping anything that falls into this range  has too few clues as to what to do with it all. Too much of a good thing. Yet, Oscar Wilde has declared: nothing succeeds like excess! You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much paper. Paper is thin. Paper is rich. Newspaper owners are rich.  If  the Paper Czar could get a penny per piece of paper, there would be hundred of thousands of dollars flowing in. (If it’s valuable why don’t you keep it?) If the artist in residence can create a demand, Paper Czar has it made.

   This is a problem in search of a solution and the solution is always in the problem. Now for the work, dear cabinet-maker. Better disposition.

   The little heron that flies up, complaining of being flushed in the dark at 6:45 a.m. is the only heron spotted this morning. The temperature is about 17 degrees and the sun I see at 7:43 popping in over the hill and shining its gold on the creek, priceless.

Stunning Nuts

   Today is national bittersweet chocolate with almonds day and that sounds good if you like that sort of thing. There is not a heron to be seen this morning and when George and I meet, we talk cameras and picture taking. He says that a couple of days ago, he went home to fetch his Canon and came back by bicycle just to capture a digital image of a tree he saw growing out of  a rock.

   “Do you have your camera with you?” he asks.

  ”No, I’m sorry to report the lens on my Nikon is dissheveled and a lens error message keeps coming up. George suggests I change the memory card. Taking it to the shop will cost an arm and a leg.

   This morning am well served at the grocery store. I drop the kitties’ water bowl which brings an end to an era. It was one of those glass vintage potato chip bowls with colored twine or string around it. Alas. On to the next thing.

Real Simple

Real Simple by Allison Huyett

 

 

   Honey locust leaves all over the trail.  It’s real simple.

   A heron at the half-mile rapids. Rain again, prompting use of umbrella, a rare but necessary accessory for the fact. Just the facts, Ma’am. Ready for the sun to come out.

    This is my to-to list for the day because I really got to be about my business. Who else in the entire world makes a honey locust leaf to do list? No one. Who gets it done better than you? No one!

    Oh, you can get a honeydew melon. You can put “ honeydew” on the list. You can find and make a  Honey Do List. ”Honey, do this.” But this? Only I can do this, that and the other thing this way.

    Stick out your can, here comes the garbage man. Got that to do too! Git R Done.

  Gotta run!

Sorry, This Box is Not a Winner

Sorry, This Box Is Not A Winner by Allison Huyett

Faded Cloth

 

Faded Cloth by Allison Huyett

  Overcast day. What shall we have? Tall coffee and a smile. Pick of the litter: packet of on-the-go clean up cloth and a bit of bark in great shape. It’s October! Squirrel in the knot of tree nibbles on nut. Leaves a plenty. Heron roars like lion on Tully turn and swoops over the creek like stealth plane. Helicopters in air last night and now. What’s up? Overcast and castaway. Castaway all cares. Care for. Far and away the best.

Notorius Super Big Bol, Wrapper

  We are nothing if not our associations. Constructs and connections, web of thoughts. A prime heron establishes itself on a prominent rock upstream of the overpass. Commanding attention, commanding a view. The rock upon which it stands is split-level and big enough to be a small island. Someone has left behind a candy wrapper, to sustain my existence. It is a BIG BOL wrapper, something you don’t see every day. SUPER is encircled or surrounded by an oval line. Combines with a crushed hickory hull – six pieces – that has a football shape. BIG BOL, super bowl, Notorius B.I.G., the rapper, BIG GLO, BIG BLO, BIG BLOW, fellatio or a crush. Crush proof box, New! BIG OIL, big oil producers. Big lob or a big glob. Bigeloil and Bigelow and a great big globe. Super. Super. Very BIG. GO. Pass go, collect 200 dollars and go outside and play.

Sweetish Fish

Sweetish Fish by Allison Huyett

   Swedish fish are one thing and Sweet-ish fish are something else. We create the sweet-ish ones in the studio this morning.

   Sounding like a politician today: a heron at every turn: one wades in the dawn’s early light and at the edge of the creek, near the footbridge on the picnic peninsula.

   One looks very content and contained on a rock at the red covered bridge. One with daddylonglegs in the water and stretched tall after the overpass – a tractor-trailer truck flies overhead. Sun at 7:15 lights the trees at the margins. One flies near the iron bridge.

   The spots are unoccupied by heron on the way back. A true fish tail!

DURO 6 Arias, Constitution Day 2009 and the Paper Czar

Constitution Day by Allison Huyett

 

 

   We the editors of  The Heron Report present the preamble of the United States Constitution and some items donated by the Paper Czar.

   Our own day begins with a kind of preamble. We walk along the creek. We come to the studio and office and and convene with our in-house representatives, including the Paper Czar. We make arrangements.

   Breakfast is one of the sweet spots of the day. The bakery frequently employs paper bags. We like to read the printing: brand and size at the top, name and date stamp on the bottom. The stamp reveals who made the bag and when. A creators mark! Here is the work of Arias, from June 29, 2009. We wonder what Arias looks like.

    From our preamble along the creek, we report one big heron, airborne from a large sycamore. The big bird swoops large, wingspan big as the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Deer Crossing

Deer Crossing by Allison Huyett

 

    Posted in invisible ink Labor Day! Today, post haste! Take your time, there’s no time to waste, no time like the present!

   Why is this black truck slowing along Tulpehocken road heading east, parallel to my walking west along the towpath at 7:12 a.m?  The Tulpehocken creek separates us. A natural event joins us: two tawny lumps swim this way in the creek. When they strike land they accelerate, a large doe and fawn, taking flight into the brush.

   Herons above and below both the red covered bridge and the overpass, at points nearly equidistant to each other, one more along the upper stretch, near the locks, and one on the toppled tree on the way back. These are the herons to report, plus one kingfisher near the mill, also crossing the creek, in the air.

   The details of the subway project preoccupy me, visualizing, how will this work? and how can we make this happen?  The range of possibilities amazes me; the distillation of ideas, it’s like being a mermaid.

Beautiful Shape

     

Magic Square: Beautiful Shape

    Flush. Bird with cottontail, I see. It flies upward, looking like a bunny tail. At the dam bridge, Ron peers into the creek. There’s one, see it? I see a leaf. Look deep. Concentrating, training my eye on the waters. I have glasses, Ron says. An eddy. I see an eddy. There he goes, flashed the side. Ron says he caught two small rock bass this morning he let go. I fail to see any fish. A rock. Look deeper, Ron says. Look to the right. This is a challenge. Polaroid glasses help, he said. I show him my catch of the day: five pictures, a copy for Darrell, Ron, Scott, Butch and Dave, plus the post.

   There is hot and there is sticky and there is hot and sticky.  My presence flushes a heron around one bend. Acivity board post: flyer from Saturday’s A Peek at the Creek adventure class, walking in the creek and looking under rocks and things for the creatures of the water. It’s a blue flyer and today is a water day.  Pick of the litter: the dia from a popular brand of bottled water. I’m in great shape. Arca diem.