Yard for the Living

The backyard at the Rub Wrongways Studios has become an animal sanctuary. Yesterday evening, while eating some freshly barbecued treats, we were surrounded by motion and sound.

The woodpecker in the tall, tall tree has been going at it for days now. You can just make out his little head rap rap rapping on the wood. That's cat's got rhythm. The chipmunks, which are all named Leslie, are scampering everywhere. You can see them go up the pile of dirt, out from under the pile of branches, along the top of the fence, and through the thick grass. They are comically fast and are constantly changing their minds.

They feed on bird seed strewn on the ground along with the bossy bluejay, the serene morning dove, the wiley squirrels, and the nuthatches, sparrows, titmouses, starlings, chickadees, robins, and cardinals. Both the cardinals and the sparrows have started families and the tiny little fledglings sound like crickets as they flitter their tiny almost-useless wings until their mother picks up a seed and drops it into their mouths.

Meanwhile a neighborhood kitty has taken to resting in the sun on the shelf of the back fence. It stretches out lazily while watching the action. Occasionally, it lamely makes a motion to go after Leslie. It's no contest. Leslie has a mmillion hiding places.

For a while there was a hummingbird at our special red feeder. I haven't seen it in a while, though. I probably should have kept the sugar water fresh.

The squirrels, of course, have managed to scale both the pole of the seed feeder and the much taller suet feeder. While on top, they swing and stretch and rotate. It's the big-top, folks, and they are the acrobats slash clowns.

(I wrote out "slash". That's funny.)

We've also got an extremely chubby woodchuck that likes to scamper for five feet, stop, and then scamper another five feet, stop, scamper, stop, scamper, and then turn and make a mad dash for the safety of the lilac bush. Hilarity.

At night a starfield of lightning bugs appears, silently flashing strange patterns in the warm darkness. It's summertime all right.

All right.