We had a visitor the other night.
We get a revolving parade of animals some more welcome then others...this one was stealthy, while the other paraded down the street as if out for an afternoon stroll.
One visitor made me smile with delight, the other...every so rudely ate the empty quail egg from my decorative bird's nest on my front porch.
And then it bumped into my heavy garden bench sitting by the front door and moved that a few feet, not my kind of visitor...
I've got too many childhood encounters with bears to ever be comfortable with them this close. Camping, and living among their world has makes me observant, but cautious.
After eating the quail egg, the bear decided to try out the path to the front garden, and despite its size, not one blossom was bruised...I will give it that.
The young buck was a visitor who waltzed down the street in front of our house. It's fuzzy two point antlers proudly held high, and it brought a smile to our faces...it was curious and bold, but in an "I'm young and free" and just out for a lark kind of way.
The conversation meandered into wondering if the buck could be one of the fawns we'd seen nestled in a trampled circle of the tall grain of the farmer's field nearby two years ago...Mom proudly laying with her two fawns in the summer's heat...dense strands of grain hiding them from prying eyes and wandering dogs.
Her location in that field gave us a sense of pride that she had chosen this spot as safe enough to spend time in with her babies.
Summer's supposed to be a languid movement of time, with hot days, and blossoms crisp cucumbers, and crunchy peas, childrens shouts and splashes of water.
Our water's been splashing down from the sky in a near-continuous stream during the month of June. July showing up cooler than usual...which I consider a lovely alternative, that's not a popular opinion.
However there are warm days, and cooler wet days, some nights we even had to have the furnace on. Those replaced by days when the heat swells...it's been a bit of all things and this week it's the heat again.
The perennials have seemingly attained the height of August corn, brazen with a desire to reach up as high as they can.
The moisture is changing the very look of the maturing Cercis Canadensis [Forest Pansy] and now my previously full sun garden beside the back porch has turned into a part to full shade garden... the cosmos and phlox are not happy. There will be some transplanting going on in the fall.
Yesterday, I witnessed the first scary flutters of a white cabbage moth...something that I forgot would be intent on laying eggs hatching into those long squirmy green worms that will eat and decimate my beautiful flawless leaves of the huge purple cabbage in the garden.
My love affair with purple cabbage doesn't include a honeymoon with those worms...they can shred a dense head of cabbage into swiss cheese, making it an unpleasant mushy mess that serves no purpose as a photographic model, or as a garden veggie.
So it's off with the fly swatter...as a gardener who's loath to squish anything...I leave the compost to the occasional visiting raccoon or possum...after all, it's totally vegetarian, and unless you are intent on harming me, or my garden it's been live and let live...now I must face down the fluttering fiends, or else continue Bella our grey tabbies moth seek and destroy training.
She's learning to chase the moths, and as a young cat is very adept at swatting, and jumping. It's hard to believe that she's just turned two....the same day as my 14th blogging anniversary.
Summer is calling, the baby birds have exited from the bird house in our garden, and we see them happily splashing in the bird bath.
Bella's been on a harness and leash to protect the littles for a while...she's been learning to discern that not everything that flitters should be brought down to earth. Her skills as a bird catcher are second to none, and we don't want to take any chances...
Have a lovely summer...
Jen @ Rural
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