Maurice Has Company

I've been seeing Crazy Maurice much more frequently lately - at least twice a day - which is much more than we typically visit.  Trees are not usually as attuned to visitors as Maurice, our Weeping Willow, is.  But, we all know that, as far as trees go, Crazy Maurice is positively hasty and much more friendly toward visiting farmers than most trees.

It's not that I don't like visiting Maurice.  I actually find that to be one of my favorite places to go on the farm.  But during busy days, there are other outdoor places that demand our attention.  At least that's true until we move laying hens (or turkeys) out by Maurice.  Then, suddenly, we find ourselves visiting to provide food and water to those birds.  

Maurice reminded me the other day that I really don't need the excuse of these noisy, fluttery, squawky, twitchy, fussy creatures (aka chickens in farmer language).  Actually, the description Maurice used is much longer than noisy, fluttery, squawky, twitchy, fussy...  this was just all I could remember.  You see, trees don't actually have a single name for anything they observe.  Instead, they prefer to describe what they are seeing, hearing and feeling and THAT becomes the name.

And those descriptions are very long because... trees are very observant.  Perhaps you would be too if you were stuck in one place your whole life.

Let's just say that Maurice is often disappointed in the farmers when they complete their chores before he is done with whatever description he is working on.  In fact, I think I heard Maurice trying to describe the farmers to a Cardinal that was perched in his branches and the word "disappointing" was somewhere in the mix.  If a tree is going to make a name (description), it's going to be honest and you'd better be ready for a few less than flattering parts. 

On the other hand, a Cardinal has even less attention span than we do and it took off before our friendly tree could get past two words.  I think Maurice thought a bit more kindly of us after that reminder.  At least I hope that's the case.