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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