animals — Page 17

Job Opening at MHC

June 11, 2015 at 9:22 am by Claudia

Wanted: Someone to function as sentry on the grounds of Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

Must be able to spend enormous amounts of time watching for adorable critters, big and small, and be willing to (nicely) scare them off from specific areas that are off-limits to the general public.

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Job Duties include: Standing at the kitchen door and looking out the window, where you will often see little groundhogs scampering toward the areas known as The Big Corral, The Mini Corral and The Big Garden Bed. On no account are said animals to be allowed to enter these areas.

Sometimes your duties will take you to what is called The Front Porch, where you will observe adorable critters and loudly proclaim “NO!” This word may have to be uttered more than once.

Job duration: three weeks.

Example of critters that must be observed:

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Other animals to watch for: deer. The current holder of this position saw a beautiful young deer this morning. She made the mistake of running for her camera in order to capture its beauty, thereby missing the fact that said deer was headed toward the big garden bed and was ready to eat the contents of that bed. The camera was hurriedly put down, the front door was opened – thereby activating the alarm, which was quickly deactivated – and the young deer was told “NO!” with a firm, but kindly voice.

This is the sort of thing you must do. All day long.

The other occupants of the house are well-meaning, but not up to the task. The male occupant will occasionally notice critters who are ‘getting into things’ and will open the door to scare them off. The other female occupant – a dog – seems not to notice or care, which is a far cry from the hyper, over-observant pup she once was. She has a much more zen attitude now, so she cannot be counted on.

Therefore, it is up to you.

End of job notice.

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Hey, I’m not kidding. It’s Critter Central here. Last night I was standing right in front of the catalpa, camera in hand, and to my shock, a skunk crossed the street and trotted right by me on his way to some destination in the woods behind the shed. I was so shocked that I was unable to get a good picture – just a blur.

By the way, isn’t the catalpa beautiful? The scent hits you as soon as you go outside. It’s sweet and heady and incredible.

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Even with the torrential rains and winds and thunderstorms of a few days ago, there are still a lot of blossoms on the tree. Glorious. I’m so grateful I didn’t miss the blooms this year.

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I was at Lowe’s yesterday and happened to notice this trellis – I believe it was called the Zen Trellis. It was only $18 and the clematis is now thanking me for getting it up off the ground. I should have done this earlier in the spring, but alas, I’m just now getting around to it.

I have to say, I love that splash of red.

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Don’s night of filming went well. Like a dog who knows when it’s master comes home, I woke up in the middle of the night, noticed that Don was not in bed with me, and, two seconds later, heard the sound of the car coming up the driveway. It sort of freaked me out….

We spoke only briefly but he was happy and loved the experience, as he always does. I’ll find out more later, but he’s still sleeping at the moment.

More to do today in the garden; weeding, weed whacking, mowing. Time to start making lists for Don. Lists for me. Laundry. You get the picture.

Happy Thursday.

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White Blossoms Everywhere

June 8, 2015 at 8:29 am by Claudia

We’re in the midst of a frothy sea of white blossoms here at the cottage. It only lasts a short time, but it sure is beautiful while it’s happening.

I’ve mentioned the wild roses that bloom this time of year. Since the brambles/roses are all over the property, so are the white flowers.

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On the edge of the woods, in the area between our neighbor’s property and ours, climbing up trees.

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From a distance, you just see white dots. But up close, what perfect little flowers! And the pink buds are making my heat beat a little faster.

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At some point, when the blossoms have vanished for another year, I’ll be cursing these very same wild plants. They will be called brambles or prickers. They just might be cursed a few times. But now….oh, how beautiful.

To add to the sea of white, the catalpa has bloomed.

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Do you see the white blossoms scattered among the leaves?

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This is what they look like. Perfect white flowers with streaks of purple and yellow. And they smell heavenly. But alas, their bloom time is even shorter than the wild roses.

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They fall to the ground within a day or two. Since it’s raining today, I suspect I’ll find many of them on the ground by the end of the day, which makes me sad. I always want to shout to the heavens: “Don’t rain for a week, okay? The peonies are in bloom, the catalpa is blooming. They’re fragile. So hold off!”

But invariably it will rain. And rain. And I’ll try to rescue the peonies. But I know I can’t rescue the catalpa flowers. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried it.

Last year, I missed the catalpa bloom entirely. So I’m grateful to witness it this year.

Oh, by the way, their are at least four groundhog babies. Maybe five. Yesterday morning, I watched them playing outside the shed. They ran back and forth. They climbed up on the picket fence that leans against the shed, weaving in and out of the pickets. They hid behind and under the hostas. They had a grand old time, just like baby animals everywhere.

Mom was nearby, probably saying to herself, “Maybe this will tire them out and they’ll take a nap!” I’ve learned that the babies start to leave home and dig their own tunnels to live in after about three weeks of eating and foraging outside the nest. Where will they go? I’ll miss them. And then Henry/Henrietta will be alone again. Sigh.

Don and I stood inside the kitchen and watched the frolicking brood for the longest time. They are adorable.

Happy Monday.

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The Vocal Bob and Weave (& Henry)

June 4, 2015 at 8:18 am by Claudia

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Meet baby Henry.

Don and I happened to look out the window and both Henry and baby Henry were chomping on food rather close to the house, and running back and forth under the car. At one point, Henry was in Scout’s little corral. Then they both got scared by something or other and ran back to their home under the shed.

About five minutes later, who did I see but Henry in my garden, dining on something that wasn’t on the menu we have provided for him. I opened the front door, went out on the porch, and of course, he scrambled for the shed. He stopped on the ramp and stared at me.

We had to have a talk. I firmly told him that he was welcome to dine on the grass and on all the vegetation in the woods, but that the garden was a NO. He continued to stare at me. NO, I repeated.

That scamp. Do you think he understood? All I know is that later in the evening, he was seen in what we call his ‘pasture’ eating the grass.

I’m going to have to keep an eye on him.

Yesterday was a sunny, beautiful day, very welcome after all the rain we’ve had. I weeded. I weed wacked. (I’m alternating the spelling of wacked/whacked because I’ve given up trying to figure out which one is preferred. Last time I wrote about it I used ‘whacked.’ Hence, ‘wacked’ in this post.) Later on, when the grass was dry, we mowed. I watered the plants on the porch.

It was just so nice to be outside!

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I’m reading Disclaimer by Renée Knight (scheduled for a book review) and it’s very good! Rather chilling, in fact. More on that in about 10 days or so. And it’s not at all like Gone Girl, thank goodness. In fact, when I grabbed it from my shelf, I noticed the blurb on the front is from Lee Child. Okay. Now we’re talking!

Don may or may not have purchased donuts yesterday. I may or may not have eaten two, which was one too many.

And speaking of language and communication, I really dislike this sort of thing:

“Do I wish I had done things differently?”

“I do.”

“Did I experience regret when I made that choice?”

“I did.”

Commit, for heaven’s sake. Don’t circle around the subject.

I’m rewriting the dialogue.

“I wish I had done things differently.” Or, better yet, “I was wrong.”

“I regret that I made that choice.” Or…”I was wrong.”

Asking the question and then answering it for oneself keeps the speaker one step away from taking full responsibility – just over the border from clear and unvarnished truthfulness.

I’m tired of people not taking responsibility for their actions and using language to dance around the subject, all the while bobbing and weaving, when a direct hit would be much clearer.

“I was wrong.” “I’m sorry.”

Simple, right?

“Don bought donuts. I ate two of them.” Nothing unclear about that.

Sigh.

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McCoy reporting for duty and providing a nice little home for my rescued peonies.

Don’t forget to stop by Hanging Out With Bloggers: Enabling the Change – the post I wrote about a great discussion I had with four other bloggers. There’s even a video of us! If you leave a comment you will be eligible to win a $100 Visa Gift Card.

Happy Thursday.

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Job Opening at MHC

White Blossoms Everywhere

The Vocal Bob and Weave (& Henry)

claudiahillsparks

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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