Adventures

I think I'm a person who has adventures. At least, they seem like adventures to me. They may not to you, if you think it's only an adventure if it takes place in some hard to reach locale and involves camels.... but on the other hand, have you seen my driveway? And if you squint at my cat just right.....

Yesterday was such a beautiful day I decided to get my vegetable patch ready for planting. I've downplayed veggies the last few years because the chipmunks destroyed everything I did. If I planted peas, they simply ate them. Beans, they waited until they germinated and then ate them. The only thing they didn't eat was broccoli, and there was so much broccoli that by the end of the summer I was halfway wishing they had eaten it. All tomatoes had bite marks, cucumbers were pre-peeled; it was hopeless. But there are fewer chippies since I stopped feeding the birds so I think I'll try again.

My veg patch is pretty small, only 20' by 20', but the soil is good and it is in the sun, so things do really well there. All it needed was some thistle seedlings removed and a bit of fluffing up with the garden fork.

So there I was, bent right over shaking the soil off a thistle root, when I felt something tap me, rather sharply, on the back. Naturally I jumped but when I tried to straighten up I couldn't! It took me a second or two to realize I was stuck in the branches of a dead Balsam Fir. These trees don't live long, and all the ones along the marsh are slowly dying and being replaced by cedars and maples. There are only a few left beside the veg garden, and one of them was quite dead on top. The gusty spring wind had broken the top off and blown it onto my back!

How many people do you know who need to wear hardhats and other protective gear just to work in their garden? And that's without even any camels around.

Then today, this morning, there was a snake in the Studio. Just a small snake, a Northern Water Snake, about 2 feet long and less than an inch at its widest. It was more or less curled up, with the end of its tail sticking straight up in the warning position. These snakes don't have rattles, but they do shake their tails as warning behavior. My cat, Pepper, was swiping a paw at it, just far enough away not to actually connect, and the snake was darting its head at her, also just far enough away not to connect.

How do you get a snake out? I put a pail over it and then pushed a cardboard underneath, scooping snakie into the pail. Then I walked it over to the edge of the marsh and said 'Bon Voyage' and tossed. It seemed to appreciate the sentiment.


Another adventure is coming up, too. Next Sunday is my Wildflowers Day here. This spring has been so late that things are still just starting, but the last few days have been lovely and warm and the spring flowers are just leaping ahead. The Trilliums ought to be at their best on Sunday. I'll have some native plants in pots for sale (very cheap!!) although I can't tell for sure yet what has and what has not survived the winter.

Do come out, if only for a visit! And maybe you'll have the adventure of finding a plant you have been looking for, and I'll have the adventure of meeting another gardener..... see, life is full of adventures!