Roadside Attractions 2/26/2023

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

One morning this week I came to a place where traffic was stopped. I was traveling a very small country road and I had seen signs telling of utility work ahead.  The oncoming, now not coming but ceased traffic was in fact a utility truck so I just assumed I had come to the aforementioned work.  I was mistaken.  While the stopped traffic did consist of utility trucks and one was actually pulled off the road doing some work, that isn’t why we were all paused.  We all had to stop traffic to wait for a duck to cross the road. Yes, that’s right. A duck was casually waddling across the road. We were right at a house that has all sorts of animals some of whom apparently had decided that day that being in the fence that usually contains them wasn’t a boundary that they were they were interested in observing. There was a second duck waiting in the driveway for his fellow fowl to meander his direction.  He didn’t get in a hurry.  He looked up at the big vehicles on each side of him and seemed terribly unconcerned.  While I admit that ducks are a bit out of the ordinary for my area, I certainly cannot say that interesting sights out in this part of the country are uncommon.  On any given day you never know what you might come across or come across you as the case may be.

Speaking of creatures crossing the road, this is most assuredly a standard occurrence.  In autumn and winter of course, we have the highly dangerous deer for which we have to forever beware.  I have both seen and personally experienced the result of the deer vs. car battle and it is awful.  They tend to not be out as much beyond fall and winter though. There are other creatures that are the usual at pretty much any time of year.  Of course, there are the possums that very rarely successfully cross.  When it comes to them, bless them, it’s more a matter of avoiding their remains than a moving target.  You can also see the occasional armadillo or raccoon though as of late, what I’ve seen of them makes me concerned that they have been taking lessons on road crossing from possums.  One smaller bit of fur that is forever testing their road prowess is the squirrel. As I mentioned last week, my area has a population of squirrels that is exorbitant in number. These little furry darts absolutely love crossing in front of cars. It seems that they have no desire to even visit the other side of the road until a vehicle is right next to them.  And not only do they love to cut it as close as possible but then one of their absolute favorite things to do is get in the middle of the lane and have multiple sudden changes of heart as to which direction they should be going.  Just when you think you have managed to avoid that fluffy tail it will turn and start right back for your wheels.  That there are still any of them living is a testament to their sheer speed and agility.

In talking about the rodents in my community, one of these bushy tailed characters gave my family and myself quite the bit of entertainment recently. While he was trapsing about my back patio, likely hoping to find an opportunity to harass the cat, he did something new.  We have two concrete pillars where we sit flowerpots during warm weather.  Well, our little rodent friend climbed to the top and plastered himself spread-eagle flat on the top of this pillar.  He laid there looking like a little squirrel skin rug with a curled tail and I must say it was an endearing mixture of adorable and hilarious.  He lay that way for a few minutes totally flat other than a fuzzy question mark coming from his hind parts, then went off wandering about, only to return a few minutes later and flatten himself again. He seemed to find it rather comfortable and repeated it several times. We just found it amusing.

It isn’t just the fauna selection that catch your eye around here.  I was taking my daughter to school earlier this week and noticed off in the distance what looked like trees in the full throes of fall.  I did quite the double take at a huge portion of the forest canopy ablaze in golden color. While experiencing multiple seasons at once is not unheard of in this neck of the woods, the trees participating so fully is rather out of the ordinary. As I got closer, I realized the yellow on the trees was tangled masses of blooming jasmine. This year I have seen more spatterings of floral sunshine scattered around the woods than I have in ages.  There are even masses that live in the trees over our driveway so that it is now littered with blooms as if nature threw a very confetti heavy party in a yellow theme.  I don’t know what environmental factors are conducive to a plentiful jasmine crop but clearly, we have had them.  And it seems said conditions are also prime for dandelions because I just noticed that the entire population of them seemed to have popped up overnight.  Most every space of grass is now suddenly covered in fuzzy little orbs. I don’t even know when that happened.  All I know is that it was quick, and it was thorough.

Now, are any of these happenings particularly earth-shattering?  No, not exactly. I daresay all sorts of likely more significant shenanigans have gone on all around me every year and I just might have missed them.  Will my world be changed because of road crossing ducks or flat lounging squirrels? I cannot say that it will.  But on the frequent cloudy springtime days of warm drizzles they certainly add just a little extra brightness.