My Moose Book

Photo: Bela Baliko

I get lots of invitations to go out for breakfast, lunch and supper.

The invitations come from Michael Johnson, who lives next door.

He sometimes calls on the phone and asks me over.

I like to go over with something we can play with or talk about.  I took my Moose Book over a few days ago.

Now it is not really a Moose Book.

I couldn’t throw away my 2014 Moose Calendar which is really a set of photographs by Bela Baliko.

Photo: Bela Baliko

I enjoyed every month last year.  Three sentences of text accompanied each picture.  For example, in January, the text read, Moose (Alex alces) are common in the northern portions of Europe and Asia.  The Europeans call this magnificent animal an “elk”.  But here in North America they are called “moose”, an Algonquin Indian word meaning “twig-eater.”  This is a very appropriate name, considering that their diet consists of mainly leaves and twigs.

Now that is about all of the information I could take care of in an early morning read.  By the time 12 months had gone by, I was getting to be quite the expert on moose. 

We ate breakfast and I held up my Moose Book for Michael and Alice, explaining details about each picture:  how the moose can hardly see, but has excellent hearing and scent; their enormous size (up to 1300 pounds); the bawling and thrashing in the brush during rutting season. 

Photo: Bela Baliko

Richard demonstrated the sound of bawling and thrashing in the bushes.  His arms and legs were flailing and his voice was deep and loud -- a frightening sound.

I demonstrated the cows’ bleating in the same manner.  We did our best replica of the animal's call and response.  We tried to get Michael to join in by throwing his voice down, way down in his throat and making a sound.  He just couldn’t do it, but 18 month old Alice joined the fun.

Yes.  

Those early Saturday morning breakfasts can be a lot of fun.

Arta