morning coffee with a midnight mouser

this post is sort of just a fun snapshot from life around this place...    

benji has become quite good at catching mice that, for some inexplicable reason, wander into his catio at night.  he believes in sharing the excitement of the experience and so brings the poor creatures into the house.  being human, i'm not that into killing or playing with mice so i send him back out with his catch and close his cat door, banishing him to his room at the back of the house and the catio.  in the morning i go into his room and if i can locate a mouse body i take it outside before i open his cat door and restore him full access to the house.  

on the morning captured in the photo below, the mouse body was somewhere in the catio and i did not dispose of it before letting benji in.  he came in and ate some crunchies in bed, as is his morning ritual once he wakes us, and then he disappeared for a few minutes.  as i was sipping coffee at around 6am he reappeared at the foot of the bed and proceeded to have an absolutely ecstatic time tossing and batting and flipping about a dead mouse.   he had such light in his eyes and was having such a great time that i felt like a complete villain for taking it from him---but i guess it had to be done.

benji and mouse, melina and coffee---a good morning

father's day

my dad always had a garden in the summer when i was a kid and for a little girl who loved to be outside in the dirt and sunshine it was the neatest thing.   he still has a great vegetable garden every summer.  i think i got the gardening bug from him and it is still the neatest thing.  it has been joy and medicine and refuge for me.   thank you, dad and happy father's day.

good job

 

he looks at me

something in his eyes

asking for reassurance

am i doing right?

and i don't know

how to tell him

don't know how to say

never have you ever

done anything wrong

everything

you have ever done

everything

that has ever happened

has brought you

here

now

and that

is exactly where

you are supposed to be

you are perfect

and you've done

everything

just right

good job

always

it was love at first sight

there's no doubt

but

it took some time

to let myself fall for you

there's something in the breeze today

whispering to me

calling me

back to some day we spent together

in the beginning

our beginning

when i could feel myself falling

and it was okay to let go

because i knew

you would catch me

always

scrub jay update

 growing, feathering, and napping...

scrub jay nest

a few weeks ago i found an empty bird's nest in one of the espaliered apple trees in the orchard garden.  i checked it now and then to see if it was active.  soon eggs started accumulating in it---blue-green with dark speckles.  when i would check, the nest was always empty, apart from the eggs, so i wasn't sure who they belonged too.  then one day i saw a scrub jay in the nest.  mama bird had laid her clutch and had settled in to incubate.  

there ended up being a total of 4 eggs

a few days ago i was in the garden when mama bird left the nest very briefly and i snuck a quick picture. 

baby scrubs---3 of the 4 eggs incubated successfully

i had a very visceral reaction when i saw them.  at first i felt something like disgust and thought they were kind of ugly but then realized it is just that they are so vulnerable, so horribly helpless, it's painful to look at them.

the nest is at the edge of the orchard garden near the northeast corner, an area that doesn't need much attending this time of year,  so they won't be disturbed too much by my coming and going in the garden and i make sure that zane and benji don't get too close.

may mama and babies be safe and well and thrive.

 

juan

he knew how to ride a bike

and how to be good