2020/10/15

八月的高温少雨，灼得绿色的大地处处现出片片焦黄。九月中后的雨水来时，大部份的焦黄重返葱郁。而一些根扎得不够深的小草，则再没醒来，于是人们在那些地方种了新的小草。此后渐多的雨水浇灌了它们，只一两个星期它们就冒出头，三四个星期后，这些展新的翠绿色成了秋天里的春天。

The August heat waves turned plenty verdant lawns to carpets of brown and green splotches. The September rainfall helped most of the grasses’ recovery, but some badly heat-burnt grass died, leaving bare spots. On these spots people sowed new grass seeds. The following rains watered the seeds, in one to two weeks, tiny grasses popped out of ground, in three to four weeks, the new fresh grass became the spring of fall.

 春夏的林子是绿的，秋天的林子是彩色的。大自然，用红橙黄绿几个色系的丝线，将这个季节的林子织成一匹匹的彩锦。今日已不见了前天大雨后的痕迹，林里林外健行道上被雨水冲出的沟壑，被黑泥沙土填平了，人、狗、自行车纷纷在这些饱满展新的黑沙土上面留下画作。

in spring and summer, the woods is green. In fall, it turns to fall foliage. Nature likes a nonstop loom. It looms big pieces of silk brocades with colorful silk threads.  Today the rain-washed trail have been repaired with black sand and clay, on which dogs, bikes and human beings left their artworks.  

林子涵洞处的溪水还在静静地流，却不像昨日那样充足，已听不到水流声。小溪里的水来自地下水和林外上游的来水。雨季时，溪里的水量充沛，水流弯曲着流过林南一段平坦的地带，再过涵洞的暗石落阶，奔涌着流向林北的那片低洼处，形成水泽地或池塘。 这样的水塘在林里有三个。夏季时，那个一边临马路，最大也最浅的塘，因为没有树荫的遮护，塘水蒸发得快，到了夏末就变成了片泥泽。另两个小得多的池塘，四边被树木包围，通常情况下，四季都有积水。

The stream’s water is flowing quietly. Compared to the howling sound I heard yesterday, today I can’t hear its whisper. The stream’s water comes from groundwater and also up-stream water. In the raining seasons, the abundant water flows across the Northwestern part of the woods which is flat but higher than Southern part of the woods, At the culvert, the water descend, hitting the rocks and gravel in the streambed on the opposite side, running down to the lower-southern area. there are three Ponds and one huge area of swamp along the path of the water. In late summer, without the shelter from the shade trees, the shallowest and biggest pond next to the road at the border of the woods is fully exposed to the sunshine, it will dry up to mire.  Thanks to the sheter provided by the trees, other two smaller ponds have water in all seasons.

My worker Ashley was tested Covid-19 positive, since I have interaction with her by using the same computer, having a 1.5 minutes’ long greetings conversation, so I was asked to be quarantined and get Covid test. This made me kind of frustrated. The frustration is not from the worry of getting infection. I don’t think I have got the virus from her since No.1) I spent short time with her, the time is only 1/10 long as a close defined by the CT health department and applied by our school district.  No.2. We both had masks on, which I believe it really helps. The frustration comes from the uncertainty before the test.   

idiom 俚语"neck of the woods" means：

指在某一区域范围内(A NEIGHBORHOOD OR REGION). 例如：

He is one of the wealthiest men in our neck of the woods.

Costco冰生鸭做的烤鸭，第一次做成这样，感觉相当成功。

用泡汁（老抽，碎八角，丁香，冰糖，料酒）泡鸭24小时, 炉火375F烤2小时，中间翻一次身。

泡汁别丢，可以加热成DIPPING SAUCE.