Beside the Stream

This is my favorite row of apricot trees. 

They were well pruned in their youth and have lived to a very great age. 

These are private apricots.  But there are a lot of public apricot trees on the county road right-of-way. 

Here’s a nice duo with a deer path in between

and the tree to the right is a public tree.

This is everyone’s favorite stop: a steep hillside with a row of apricots that were watered and pruned in their youth, and ended up belonging to the county.

I have a very minor mental map of unowned trees, and some of my friends know the feral fruit trees for miles.  

Birds, though, are the masters at mentally mapping food sources.  The Clark’s Nutcracker hides around 5,000 caches of pinyon nuts for the winter, and recovers most of them. 

Can you imagine remembering that many secret stashes?