Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Those Crazy Katz' of Windsong Lane: Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Spring fog

On one of their trips they had stopped at the garden center and picked up some sprouts and seeds for the garden. They had another great afternoon planting it all, and then it was a daily chore, just like the goats and chickens, to water, weed and check on it all. 

Pretty soon there were little sprouts and they were hopeful. It was a challenge to keep Emma and Snitch out of it all. Snitch had an unfortunate habit of walking across the garden on the way from one part of the yard to the next, and they would find deep doggy footprints criss-crossing their carefully tended plots.

One day Jack looked out and said, “Mom! Why is everything all yellow?” There was a thick coating of yellow dust all over everything. It covered the garden.  It covered the fences. It covered the chicken coop. It even covered the goats. Short of some kid of chemical warfare, Karen had no idea what it could be. A light dusting was even on the windows and roof. They went outside and, yes, it was a kind of dust. It was puzzling. Well, there certainly had been no shortage of pollen in the air this Spring, maybe it as a new kind of pollen.

She called Rose up that evening and Rose said, “How long have you been living in North Carolina? Don’t you know that’s pine pollen?”

“Well, no, I suppose we were never under pine trees before. I think other people have told me about it but I’ve never really seen it. All of that stuff is really coming from the trees?”

It really was amazing. There were several pine trees next to the house, and the pollen would pile up in drifts on the porch, and if it was windy, the air would turn greenish yellow and everyone would stay inside. One or more of them would go outside and sit down and come back with yellow backsides and hands. This went on for a couple of weeks and then just as suddenly it ended. That was the end of the “yellow haze” as they called it.

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