It was about 8:30 this morning when I spied a most unwelcome interloper under the bird feeder. We’ve had our eye on this rodent for a couple of days, discussing various methods of his demise or rehoming (probably the former). We don’t see many of his kind around here, and his snooping for the birds’ peanuts is just not acceptable. Surprising even myself, let alone the resident dog and this other creature, I found myself charging forth into the garden, arms flapping, legs pumping, and hollering, not even yelling, “ ’Git! ‘Git! Out! Scram! Am-Scray! Vamoose!” That’s when I realized the hired help at the next door winery might just wonder what was happening on our side of the fence.
The creature departed as I continue to clap my hands (why do that?) and patrol the perimeter. Satisfied that nothing more needed to be done for now, I took up a post on the back steps and set a brief watch. In that time, small, counter beauties came my way: a monarch floated by, and glancing up I saw a hawk making, indeed, “lazy circles in the sky” although we are a quite a distance from Oklahoma.
Still, there was another connection to the West, and I’m always glad to spot one. After the dog walk in which we flushed out a deer, I dove into the new twice daily exercises designed to unfreeze a stubborn shoulder. Lacking a cane which the PT person used to teach these to me, I dug out the Saguaro cactus rib we’ve moved with us twice: it was just where I left it years ago, above the stairs to the basement! And just as I waded into doing what those small diagrams showed, a friend from where those cacti grow reached out with a new book suggestion. Sometimes it really is a small world!
There’s not much else to narrate about this past half-day: the laundry got done, the newspaper skimmed, the dog and I lunched and now I wait for a visit from one of the grands. I thought of my own grands as I flapped that pesky rodent away, and could see them in my mind’s eye chasing wayward geese or chickens on their farm long ago. It seems to have been a full home-grown morning, one that’s even afforded a chance to say so. Still, I need to go see whether the coast is still clear.
from the smallest 