Tag Archive | pregnant doe

Mother Earth

May12

Celebrating Mother Earth this morning, I worked in the rock garden pulling weeds, moving a couple of rocks, and planting a rosemary and a red salvia. The salvia’s an annual, but I’m hoping the microclimate of this location will allow the rosemary to overwinter. It was a delight to look up and see Wren and Stripe in friendly, curious engagement.

It was equally delightful to prepare a hearty salad for lunch with a Penzeys dressing, the last tomatoes from the sunroom, three seared asparagus, and a head of romaine from the garden along with some heirloom arugula which grows between the patio flagstones. Leftover bean salad and pasta plus an avocado rounded it out.

I’m grateful for some meaningful interactions with friends today, including a couple of readers who shared their delight in Sudoku with images: One is clearly an expert, and the other is delighted with a recent birthday gift of Sudoko using colored marbles!

After a full day of mixed rain and shine, Wren did a very poor job finding Biko this evening. It’s still getting cold enough overnight that he needs to come inside, and we circled the yard twice before I spotted him. He had tucked in in none of his usual spots, which Wren dutifully checked the first time around; the second time we looked in all his unusual spots as well, before I finally spotted him from a distance up against the fence in the dog pen. We’d looked in there once already, where he wasn’t in his few favorite locations. I think the weather, going from warm to cold back and forth throughout the day has thrown his routine. He probably tucked in wherever he was when the last squall blew through and settled for the night. Or, in his sundial way, he stopped in a spot where he knew the sun would hit first thing in the morning. Wren finally found him but only after I practically led her to him.

And what a perfect way to end a Mothers Day, a happy cat under a rainbow. I paused throughout the day to reflect on my own mother, whose last Mothers Day was twenty years ago, and also to remember some other mothers who have passed on who were dear to me. But mostly, I connected with and celebrated Mother Earth.

Fun

Jun12

Fun is different for everyone, but I think everyone on the Canary Committee had some kind of fun today walking in the Pioneer Days Parade. I’m grateful for the strong women and two men who made our showing an effective message. As I returned to my car afterward, a porch sitter nearby said, “Y’all sure did a lot of chirping out there!”

“I think we got our message across, don’t you?” I replied. “Oh yeah!” he and his companions agreed. That was one of the more straightforward comments I heard after the parade. Others carried a tinge of drought denial that confused me. We are so clearly in dire straits here on the western slope, in an area that has already increased 4ºF in the past hundred years, the area in the continental US most affected by the global warming of climate chaos. Extraordinary drought is only one of the symptoms. So it felt antagonistic to me when a woman on the Republican float called out to us, “Then don’t take a bath tonight!”

And while it was kind of clever, it also seemed supremely ignorant when a Mennonite man came up to me and asked, “Are you a canary or Chicken Little?” I’m grateful for the equanimity that mindfulness practice has generated in me. I was able to smile and say, “Oh, but this is real.” He laughed and said, “I’m just kidding.” I hope so, but I wasn’t sure. I hope that the other canaries received more supportive comments, but I didn’t stick around to find out. After being out in the largest crowd I’ve seen in a couple of years, I headed for the serenity of home.

I’m grateful the tender seedlings I transplanted last evening survived the blistering dry heat of their first day in the ground. The worst is over for them, I hope. I’m grateful I can provide some dietary diversity in my yard for this gravid doe, though I did eventually shoo her away from the columbine blossoms she was happily plucking. She stepped off a couple of yards and ate a few honeysuckle buds before meandering back toward the pond.

I’m grateful for the fence around the food garden, or I wouldn’t have anything to harvest! I’m grateful for another handful of radishes and half today’s snap peas on their way to the fridge. The other half of today’s peas I tossed into a skillet with the last of the oyster mushrooms and some chopped scallions (those perennial onions) for my evening snack. So simple, so delicious! I’m grateful to be eating food I’ve grown at the end of a full Saturday that included connection with community and nature, a long talk with my soul sister, sweet time with my beloved animal companions, and a nice long nap: My kind of fun.