My Blog

I just read over my blogs.  Most of them I still like.  I still especially like the " I Don’t Get It" entry.  I guess you could say that’s my "purpose" in life.

I got to thinking about one phrase I used.  I said I might not even make the slightest little difference.  Perhaps on a global scale that’s true.  But at this moment, as I sit on my porch, there is non-stop action at my pond. A pair of cardinals, a pair of catbirds, a pair of mockingbirds, a grackle, my resident sparrows, 3 mourning doves, and several robins. Not to mention the rabbits and the squirrels. Soon the butterflies and other insects will arive.

They all have fresh water to drink. There is mud a-plenty for the robins to line their nests with-and the coconut husks from my planter!  Dried grasses for the sparrows and finches. Trees and shrubs for shelter and nesting. Later in the season there will be berries and seeds, and nectar, and leaves for caterpillars to munch.

This might seem like a small thing.  But, 6 years ago, all that was here was grass. And cement. It was a biological waste of space, offering nothing.  Not even starlings bothered to visit the yard. Now, with a little care and a lot of work, my yard provides living things of all sorts with the basics of life- and a few little luxuries as well.  Now it sustains and comforts dozens of creatures.

I remember a story I read somewhere.  A boy was travelling down a rainy road with his grandfather.  Every few feet he made his grandfather stop the car. The boy’d get out of the car, and remove a toad from the middle of the road, carefully placing it in the brush along the sides.   After the umpteenth time, the grandfather was getting irritated. "Son,  you can’t possibly make a difference!  There are so many of them!"  The boy stopped, and replied -as he picked up yet another toad- "Well, it makes a difference to this one!". 

I guess that’s how we must look at things.  Every living thing has a desire to live. And God made each and every one of them. It matters to each bird that they have fresh water to drink and bathe in.  It matters to each dove that they have cool mulch to sun themselves in. It matters to each squirrel that they can find warm nesting material for their babies. And it matters to each creature that they have food.

So… I guess I did make a difference. I have provided food, water, shelter, nesting materials and places for creatures….in a place where only a few years ago there was none. I have made a difference for that robin who is pouncing on worms in my garden bed where before was just cement. I have made a difference for that silly dove who is trying to decide how to get in the water for a bath, where before was just grass. 

So here I sit, glancing at "Frankie" - my St. Francis of Assisi statue in front of my pond- Yes.  I have made a difference. A mighty difference, in the eyes of those who are affected.

Ahhhh!   At last!  Spring has sprung!  Once again I can sit outside on my porch in the mornings and watch the "traffic".  Nowadays the visitors consist of Goldfinches, House Finches, a few pairs of Cardinals (newcomers), Chickadees (also new!), several Robins, two Mourning Doves, one Mockingbird, and as of this morning, my favorite— at least one Catbird!

One of the Robins has been stealing the lining of my window-box, made of shredded coconut husks. I know it’s for her nest, so I ‘m only mildly annoyed. Now the soil washes out little by little every time I water it. And a squirrel stole about 1/3 of the stuffing of the pillow on my seat- a very pregnant squirrel, so I let her have as much as she wanted. 

The house finches have set up housekeeping again in their box, and a pair of Cardinals had a nest in the backyard hedge. ("had" a nest…. Jef trimmed the hedge and the nest went with it. Sayang!  3 eggs and a newly-hatched baby! Hannah found it, and was very distressed! She grabbed Jef and said "Daddy!  Bee nest fall! Babyegg fall, broke!  Oh! Back? "  She was gesturing very dramatically!  (She says "bird" as "bee".  Eggs to eat are "egg", but wild eggs are "babyegg".  A baby bird is "babyegg out". So cute!) She wanted the nest fixed! So sweet!

Yesterday afternoon two male Robins were duking it out over something! What a ruckus! Hannah scolded them for fighting - "Stop bee!! No!  Nice!"  (Translation: Stop fighting, birds! No!  Be nice!")

My garden is different every year- between my rearranging and the plants’ spreading and reseeding themselves, I am hard-pressed to remember what is what as it comes up.  OK…. is this thing way over here a goldenrod…. or is it an aster…… didn’t I move those asters last fall??  And WHERE did I move those milkweeds to? 

I have declared war on the Canada thistles this year!  Those suckers hurt when you step on them!  And both Hannah and I love to walk around barefoot (when Daddy’s not home to scold us!) I hate using sprays, since it kills whatever it touches. (I….ahem… accidentally killed my neighbors Peony’s last time I used it…I dropped the hose and it squirted on them…oooops!) Thistles are a product of the Fall- I know it! Everything God made was "good", and as far as I know, there are no redeeming qualities to Canada Thistles.  Aside from herbicides, the only way to rid them from your garden is to yank… and yank, and yank.  If you leave even 1/16 of an inch of root, it will grow back. BUT..they put most of their reproductive energy into spreading via their root system as opposed to seeds. So, if you keep yanking, eventually it will die of sheer exhaustion. It can take a few years in a bad infestation! But I am a very stubborn person!

     Every morning, since I am not knitting anything presently, I make my coffee, put on my work gloves, and grab my weeding thingamajig. I swear.. there are thistles growing this morning where there were none yesterday!  grrrrrrrr!

Well, my hubby and daughter are waiting, perched in front of me, wistfully sighing; Hannah said "Go voom voom!"  Jef said "I’ll go get my KEYS…." . I guess we are going somewhere. Besides… my daughter just presented me with my shoes (threw them at me, actually) with "Mama soos! One two Mama’s soos!"  I get the message!