Green in Tooth

I haven’t written a Village Tale in a long time, but still every morning, as before, I take the same walk with the same black dog, down our lane to the pasture at the foot of Vedder Mountain.  (My previous Tales are near the bottom of the blog on our website)

It used to be, not long ago, that I could go over the stream’s bridge and down the truck tracks to the back corner and the apple trees.  But now the grass is high, dense and wet and no-one but a deer has been there for ages.   I push my way a few paces in, until I’m surrounded by a windy, noisy audience of canary grass, rubbing its grass fronds together in applause.  I soak in some gratitude and when it’s all too much, I retreat.


I could have turned a different way, along the bank of blackberries that crowds along the stream at the bottom edge of our new vegetable field.  There are so many blackberry canes, in fact, I hardly know there’s water rushing in the stream in its depths.  The cover crop, that the farmers have newly planted, is coming up in little leaf-pairs.  Next spring, the acres will have vegetables for eating, no longer even this promised cover of clover and oats, or the previous field where so many rodents fed ... and where the rodents fed owls.

Behind me, the black dog pounces to the end of her leash and catches a rabbit.  Just like that.  Her eyes tell me ‘sorry’, but her teeth clamp more tightly on the rabbit’s neck.  And I’m glad to see that, having caught, her instinct is to kill, though tears have sprung to my eyes.   The small creature dies quickly in the dog’s grip; a shiny black eye dulls and limbs hang.

I leave the little limp body out in the open, for the owls, or ravens, eagles or coyotes.   Nature- red in tooth and claw. ( Tennyson)

There are so many rabbits this year.  Their little white tails flip as they run away ahead of us.  They live here too, along with us ... soft brown rabbits with perky stand-up ears ... gentle and beautiful.  They can destroy a whole row of cucumbers in the night, by taking just one bite out of each fruit.   Nature- green in tooth and more teeth.

The other direction along the stream bank takes me next door past the ends of the blueberry rows.  The ground has been completely denuded of weeds and so, is easy to walk on, in the rain.  But if my handkerchief were to fall onto this ground, I think I’d rather let the wind take it, than pick it up and put it back in my pocket.  And I don’t let the dog drink from the puddles.

The blueberries are ripening now; a few leaders in each cluster are plumping up to skin-stretching blueness.  Each berry is dusty with a bloom and a different delicate shade from deep blue through to unripe-pink. The crop looks huge and the bushes thriving. The new growth at the end of each branch is vigourous, fresh and exquisitely tinted to match the berries and stems.    Utterly beautiful and completely unappetising.

Our neighbours have kept the blackberries away from their stretch of the stream.  There are flowers blooming instead.  Yellow flag iris has its feet in the water.  And there are long drifts of tall pink-flowering impatiens ... each ballooning blossom dangles delicately on a slender stalk.  They grow lustily where they can, and are stunted and misshapen where the neighbour’s machine has caught them in a sweeping, spraying herbicidal arch from turning the corner at the end of each berry row. Lovely Impatiens glandulifera is highly invasive and proliferates in damp, fertilized soil like our neighbour’s.

There’s a hazelnut orchard past the berry field. Precise rows of black-trunked trees create a dense shade-cover.  There’s no undergrowth; the farmer has removed it to make collecting the nuts easier.  But there’s an intriguing atmosphere, an appealing sense of place.  This is where I saw the Wood Ducks balancing awkwardly on the branches.  They nest in trees, but bigger ones than these ... trees with holes in them.

And that’s the reason I thought of 'Wood Duck' as a name for our village  ... wanting these exquisite, intricately-patterned birds to be able to stay and make a home.

Our Community Meeting this last Sunday, considered that name for our Cohousing, among others like - Blue Heron, Yarrow and Community Street South.  The circle of people at the naming, was gratifyingly numerous and diverse.  There were folks so recent, they were still at the tour stage. And others who preferred hovering,  waiting to land... wanting to know if they can afford the houses, or if they’ll find work here in Yarrow or nearby.  One person was quivering with the pleasure of her fresh decision that we are her new home.  And there were old-timers too.  Our numbers are growing; our village taking shape.

We want a name that gathers together all who will live here.  That says we all belong ... founders, settlers; new and old.

(Of course we mean more than the people belonging, too, don’t we?  Plants, certainly! The cucumbers, the healing herbs and the nut trees. And creatures! ---the coyotes, butterflies, and herons.  (But do we also mean the nibbling rabbits, as well? )   We want to honour those who’ve come before, and been here a long time –  cottonwoods,  eagles, wind and soil.    And what about the more recent?  Impatiens, blueberries and red clover?

And the hungry and their food?   Owls – mice - seeds.   Humans –chickens-bok choy-blackberries-honey

We can include them all.

On Sunday, we looked over many names and had fun in considering them, but failed to come to consensus. Failed?  No, not failed, just not feeling ready.

When the group is ready it will decide.  Trust the group.

It’s now after dark as I write this.  I hear the owls outside the window.  The parents are bringing food to their adolescent young, who can fly but can’t yet hunt for themselves. One is sitting on the hydro pole beside my house, screeching for its parents to bring more.  “More!” it shouts, “More!” They’ve been eating rabbits and dropping small parts for us to find underfoot in the morning.

I look at our guiding vision ... to live in harmony with neighbours and nature.  I see a plethora of eating and being eaten, all around.  (I must be hungry! It’s almost lunch)  We are living together, humans, plants, animals in this beautiful place - the delicacy of the harmonic balance is revealed- and in a myriad of tiny ways, I’m thinking.

Convivia Commons ... ( con) together (viva) living  .  What do you think?  Should I throw it into the mix for next time’s name choosing?