Pulling Weeds

It started out not promisingly:  overcast sky, very dark to the West, sprinkles of rain as I crossed the Potomac on the Beltway and drove toward Carderock.  The C&O Canal Association VIPs were going to pull up an invasive plant called garlic mustard from the woods at Carderock.  The group leader was Mary from the Nature Conservancy.  She explained what our task was, showed us a couple of specimens of the plant, and the 9 of us walked over the the edge of the woods and started uprooting the plant. 

This was actually quite pleasant work:  sitting on the ground or stooping over, gently yanking up the shallow-rooted plant.  The humidity had gone, a breeze kept us cool, and the plants actually smelled a bit like garlic - I fantasized that the smell came from the kitchen at the Lebanese Taverna restaurant near my house.  

There was a little bit of chit-chat among us, but mostly we were quiet, listening to the wind in the trees around us and the river nearby.  Occasionally as we moved around someone would comment on seeing a rare plant, or small lacey ferns, or warn us about a patch of stinging nettles, or exclaim over the size of a daddy-long-legs spider. 

In just under 2.5 hours we nine stuffed weed into 32 sacks, and cleared just about an acre.  We were told that the day before there were 24 sixth-graders who filled 40 sacks in the same amount of time.  We think we were more focused than sixth-graders - wouldn't you agree? 
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