A Country Mile

The kids had spent the night at their grandparents, so this morning the Mr. and I drove into town for a coffee.  About halfway there we both spotted a white goose sitting on a grassy embankment not far from the guard rail.  Hub turned around up the road, and I got out and went over to investigate.  I approached, and it was defintely a tame goose as opposed to wild. In the back of my head I was thinking maybe it would be friendly and it would like me, but the front of my head was envisioning past encounters with geese, usually with a rake or the like in hand for protection. 

It didn't move til I got close, and then it started honking and lowering its head, walking around a bit, nibbling at the ground while it did so.  I figured this was nervous energy as opposed to actual searching for food.  But I'm not up on my goose psychology.  Anyway, it started walking farther down the bank but turned back and gave me a big open-mouthed hiss.   I didn't have my camera on me at the time to capture this special bonding moment between us, unfortunately.

We named it Cuddles. 

I got back in the truck and texted my animal control officer friend in town.  She replied that this goose probably belonged to a lady a few roads over who had 100 or so of them, that it probably just wandered off.  I suppose that's possible, but I wonder what would make a goose wander away from such a flock (other than some peace and quiet).  I worried someone had just dropped this creature off, maybe seeing the small stream that ran through at the bottom of the bank and hoped it would be ok until somebody found it...or maybe they didn't care at all.  We went on with our morning, got our coffee, went for a little ride around town, and returned home. 

A couple hours later I had hub drop me off about 3 miles down the road so I could jog home, rather than do my usual looped route...

On my short warm-up walk, I stopped and said good morning to these two.  They came out of their barn to say good morning back, probably hoping I'd have a carrot or an apple.  Sorry guys.

Just after I started jogging, I stopped to take a picture of this fine fellow.  I'm not sure how many hundreds of times I had trotted by without noticing him over the years, but I didn't until last summer.

Apparently he was just as shocked to see me.  I fear *he* may never recover, though.

A bit farther up the road is one of my favorite barns in town.  The barn itself is nothing too special, but I just love this view of it.  It's especially breathtaking on a drizzly summer morning, when the grass is green and lush, and the red of the barn is deep.  In the summer there are sheep in the field behind it, and in the winter a flock of wild turkeys is ever present under an apple tree there.  I even once saw a young coyote prowling about the woods nearby.

At the end of my first mile I'm back at this morning's guard rail, peering over to see my friend, the ornery goose, bathing in the stream at the bottom of the bank.  I had hoped it wouldn't still be there.  But alas, it was and seemed content enough.  It tried to ignore me, but then got up after a minute and waddled about a bit, honking again.  My cell phone doesn't zoom or take especially clear pictures, but I think if you look really closely you can see Cuddles was actually blowing me kisses.

I hope it does return home, by its own doing or that someone else notices and is able to capture it.  I hope that it gets some shelter and the food that it's accustomed to.  I'm not sure how to catch a goose.  But having left my stealth helicopter and giant fine-mesh net in my other jacket, I had no choice but to wish it well and move on.  There's a nice lady that lives up the other side of the bank, and she has a big raspberry patch in the summertime.  Maybe this goose will soon be living the good life.  Who knows?

And there you have your first country mile. 

I'll leave you here and trod on a couple more...finding my own way back home.