Wednesday, March 5, 2008

trickling sap


“I have seen the signs of spring. I have seen a frog swiftly sinking in a pool, or where he dimpled the surface as he leapt in. I have seen the brilliant spotted tortoises stirring at the bottom of the ditches. I have seen the clear sap trickling from the red maple.”

- From Thoreau's Journal dated February 23, 1857.

The trickle of sap has come to the valley. Recently, a maple on the Third Creek Greenway was oozing clear, watery sap from a series of sapsucker wells. As is their yellow-bellied way, the holes were drilled with a machinist's precision in a neat little row. The sap was sticky to the touch but surprisingly had little taste.

Photo: the lower row of sapsucker wells is fresh and trickling sap

No comments: