north wall · lead flashing, granite paving · moss, between stones
the strip of ground along the north wall where rain, falling from the eave, has worn the granite a quarter-inch shallower than the rest of the path. you can see it on a dry day in oblique light: a straight, narrow shadow drawn against the wall, as if someone laid out a line of damp string and forgot to lift it.
from this line runs a small but reliable hydrology. in rain it is a dotted curtain, then a continuous skirt of water; the stones beneath ring softly as each drop lands, the pitch of a wet stone being a fraction lower than a dry one. in snow the line is the first thing to thaw: by the time the path is white the drip-line is a dark seam, then a chain of small dark holes. in frost it freezes in places into a pavement of little discs, each one the trace of a previous drop.
between the stones, only along this line, a particular slate-moss grows, dark green, faintly silvered. it nests nothing larger than a woodlouse. it shelters a great many. the gardener leaves it alone; the moss, after all, has decided where it lives, and where it lives is here.
field-note · north after a heavy shower, stand on the line for ten seconds. the line continues to drip for some time after the rain has stopped. that water has been on its way down longer than you have been standing here.