Musical Buckets

Day 19: Sap buckets hanging on trees is the sign of a promised Spring. Mid March is a quiet month. The fallen leaves which were once so vocal in October have begun to meld into the damp rich soil. The birds are just beginning to shake of the memories of snow and the trees themselves are sending life blood to the skeletal branches
The sound of collecting tiny drops of sap in metal buckets is a sound from my childhood. Our neighbor “tapped” the woods where I spent much of my time. It was a wonderful collection of large, old growth maple trees with a small “crick”meandering through. We would enter the woods by following a well worn path that was cut into the side slope. As we followed the path down into the woods it became darker and the earthy smell began to mingle with a hint of smokey sweetness. The path ended at the small 4 foot bridge that crossed the crick. It was there on the level, that Dorothy had built a temporary stove out of cinder blocks and stove pipe. She boiled sap, for day on end. I remember watching Dorothy expertly tending her shallow copper pan of magical water. When I close my eyes I can still see as a cloud of steam floating through my sleepy woods.

“Musical buckets” Watercolor/ Colored Pencil 3”x5” SOLD

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