Ramble with Storm: Take me hedge-apple bowling

Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, our family’s mixed Lab.

On the east side of the south old clay pit, roughly 100 hedge apples were scattered on the path. I say roughly because I stopped counting at 32 and was only a third of the way through.

Yesterday, i counted them all and there was 72 on the ground. So another 30 or so must have come down since yesterday morning.

With no Bears game today, I think our youngest two and their buds will have to do some hedge-apple bowling.

And I had been worried that hedge apples might not come this year because of the lingering impacts of the droughts.

Looking at them, I thought, `Take me hedge-apple bowling.”

That’s a play on the “Take Me Fishing” campaign by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation.

Normally, I am not a big fan of such organized campaigns, but I thought that media campaign was successful. It tread the line of sappiness, but stayed on the right side of being meaningful and heart-touching without feeling like a whole bottle of Log Cabin syrup.

At least I thought the ads worked.

And it was a good introduction way of getting people to Takemefishing.org, a great site for general and all fishing information in the United States.

The meathead gave me a wake-up as we set off.

He began furiously barking. I though maybe he saw another dog or a cat. But no, he is a meathead afterall, it was simply the Halloween decorations on a porch a block north.

Sheeze.

But it was a good morning to be awakened for.

It was a stunningly beautiful fall morning, and regular readers know how hard it is for me to say anything nice about fall.

On the north pit, some three dozen Canada geese swam tight to the west shore. Another seven were swimming more toward the middle.

As dawn came, some shots from big guns came. I think the guys are goose hunting on the lakes to the south.

Three geese flew low over the south pit, then continued on.

Back in town, 14 geese flew over the garage downtown, within shooting range, say 25 yards.

That was it for wildlife.

But a morning ramble that fit comfortably as an old winter coat.