This time of year, pussy willows make an appearance. The furry little buds belong to the willow tree and are one of the early signs of spring. When we lived in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland, these trees were part of the border on the back of our property. I often cut some of the furry branches in the spring and displayed them in the house. They brought nature inside after the long winter.
A friend gave me a small bouquet of pussy willow and daphne this past week. The sight of the fuzzy willows in the vase reminded my husband, Rick, of a classroom experience he had in Buchans, Newfoundland. He walked in his classroom one day to find a group of Grade Seven and Eight girls screaming, some almost hysterical. When he asked what was going on, the girls pointed at one of the boys as the culprit.
Trying to get to the bottom of the situation, Rick told the boy to come with him to the corridor.
He asked, "What's going on in there?"
Shoulders slumped, head down, the boy lifted his clenched hand from his side and slowly opened his fingers to reveal a single pussy willow bud.
The girls thought it was a caterpillar.
2 comments:
One of life's lessons.Always be able to tell the difference between plant & insect life!
It really does look like a caterpillar. You can imagine how much fun that was for a twelve year old boy, until he was caught.
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