Ticks and tricks

There are no ticks on Beaver Island. I’m not quite sure I believe it myself yet, but that’s what they say. Before the wedding, I took The Beast to the Indiana Dunes where she acquired seven or so of those horrid tagalongs. If I never have to feel for those telltale lumps again (not to mention find their creepy little bodies on the floor and in my bed), I’ll be happy. So letting her run wild here on the Island with one less thing to think about suits me just fine thankyouverymuch.

Still, I’ve been lobbing the ball with the Chuckit in the driveway here because the ferns and duff make finding balls a bit difficult. She finds enough reason to run through the woods without me launching the ball in that direction. My aim with the Chuckit is a bit off though (I’d blame the busted ribs but I’ve been known to bean random people at the dogparks with my shots). As the dogs ran down the dirt and pine driveway last week, the red ball landed in a branch. Gazza and Rudy combed the area thoroughly, oblivious to the ball above them. Go figure it’s one of only three small branches that tower above the long driveway. I could never hope to land it there if I tried (as evidenced by the futile throwing of rocks to knock it loose). I expected the wind to knock the ball down, but it spent a few nights up there, swaying peacefully in the breeze, until Peleke got it down with some well-placed rocks and sticks.

Before the ball stranding, though, I'd been enjoying the quiet morning with Gazza and Rudy. I happened to glance to my left at one point and was delighted to see two long spiderweb strands- and I do mean long! The reached from the bottom branches of the pines to nearly the forest floor. The seeming impossibility of that from what was (hopefully) a small spider prompted me to step in for a closer look. After one step, I realized what I was actually seeing was a fascinating optical illusion of similarly impossible likelihood.

Three tall pine trees in the shadow of the woods lined up perfectly so that the two parallel to the road tightly framed the third, which stood a few feet further back. They have grown so tall and straight that from just the right angle and with the sun filtered through the leaves just so, the thinnest glimmer of pure light shone through on either side of the furthest tree. Those parallel slivers of light reached from the lower branches to the ferns looking like two long shimmering spiderweb strands.

Crazy.