Sanosuke caught a second mouse. I grabbed the camera, but the lighting is very dark. Sorry!
What you didn’t see, was when I tried to take it from him. When I finally got the courage to try and take it away, Sano flipped the mouse right at me.
The mouse theme has ended, for a while at least! Unless I find one waiting for me in my bed..
Surrounded by farm land, and
Open fields of untouched soil
Winter is cold wet and frozen
Spring brings a thaw of rains, and
Flood waters and open creeks
Those swell to streams
And then…they come into the house
One mouse in the house Two mice in the garage Three mice in the barnHow tempting a treat to a cat
Hawk or coyote
In a pet shop
You are worth a couple of dollars
To me your cost is closer to a thousand
To fix the damage, when
You, you tiny rodent
built a condo inside my car
Within the air ducts and around the engine
One mouse in the house Two mice in the garage Three mice in the barnTime for Feisty Sanosuke, Kenshin, and PJ
To play with those Sweet little mice
In the garage,
Furry and fat scamper off my walls
I hear your nails scratching, and
your teeth gnawing
Your days are numbered
One mouse in the house Two mice in the garage Three mice in the barnI have to insist, give up your license
To my car, and my house
Your cash is shredded in this years nest
And plastic is not accepted
So run, run little furry mouse
Sanosuke, Kenshin and PJ want to play,
Tomoe just wants to watch
I will set out sticky traps
And search in every corner
One mouse in the house Two mice in the garage Three mice in the barnAre just one too many mice in my life…
Picture from clip art;The past few days the weather has been up and down, sideways and in circles.
Last night we had pouring rain, thunder and dangerous lightening. During the first part of that storm I was outside, walking as close to the house as I could get, while I tried to encourage Uriah to do his business in a hurry. Nothing hurries Uriah. I stood back and watched the dark sky light up emphasizing the jagged edges of the high Cumulonimbus clouds. A rolling rumble vibrated underneath my feet and still Uriah sniffed at the edge of the Blue Spruce, unperturbed. It was only when I told him to get in the house that he started to whine. He hates thunderstorms, but Uriah’s idea of safety during a storm is to stand out in the open and stare up into the electrified sky.
On Sunday, when the path was still a path, severe winds blew over a tree. Fortunately I wasn’t out there when it happened. I never made it though the back yard, even attempting to make my way to the back path was impossible. The winds were irritatingly loud! I couldn’t see past my hair, no matter how hard I tried, and at one point I thought I saw Miss Gulch pedaling over head, followed closely by that Pheasant, and That Rat. With each step I fought to move forward. I could have tied a rope to Uriah and flew him like a kite. Alright, a fat, pudgy unhappy kite…
Today the path is underwater and the air is so heavy I was feeling out of sorts, dizzy, sneezing, and hard to breathe I am moving very, very slow. On the bright side the toads are croaking loudly and the mosquitoes are out and biting. Hmmm!
Back to the tree! In order for me to remove that tree I will need to use the tractor, and ‘she’ is still asleep covered in blankets in the barn.
I stood back and paced out the distance from the beginning of the path to the downed tree, sixty steps. Not good! Last year we had a tree fall over and it was only a fraction of the distance, and a forth the size. Taking the tractor in that area would set me up for disaster with all that soft wet mud under the large wheels. If I stood in the mud I would sink in. If I add a tractor with spinning wheels and an idiot driving (me) … Well, the tractor will sink deep in the mud, and at that point I will need to call someone in to pull it out.
Still I stood there and thought about it…
If I used the tractor I will need a very long chain that I can connect to the tree, and the tractor. All the while crossing my fingers, that both will hold on the first attempt. They never do! One side or both will slip off and have to be reconnected, while I’m left standing in the thick black, oozing mud.
I considered leaving the tree and cutting a path around it..hmmm! I have a chain saw, sort of. Michael hid it somewhere, so that idea might not work.
Today isn’t the day to work out the technicalities, too much water and a lack of diesel, and a hidden chainsaw.
Last resort… Woodpeckers! Eventually they would pound holes in that tree allowing it to fall apart. I’m voting for the birds.
In the meantime, Uriah walked around the tree…
Sanosuke’s first bunny rabbit! A picture is worth a thousand words!
Four
pictures
are
priceless.
Pussy, pussy pussycat 
Playing with the
Pussy, pussy Pussy Willows
Pushing pulling at the soft tips
Knocking off their nails
Grabbing the branch and tipping the vase
Making for a perfect Pussy Willow race
Across the kitchen floor, under the rugs
Swept up in the fun of a catkins chase
Slipping, sliding bouncing off the walls
Finally tuckered out and surrounded
By Pussy Willow tails
The pussy, pussycat
Falls into his catnap garden
Chasing his dreams with
Pussy Willow sticks
When I took these pictures, I had to keep telling Sano, “don’t touch!” As soon as I put away the camera he knocked over the vase and started playing. The vase is on the floor because no one would stay away from it as it sat on the table. Safer on the floor! Poem for Jingles Thursday’s poet Rally:-)
Roll me an egg across the fresh garden grass
Speckled with colors blues and greens, reds and yellows
Hidden among the daffodils, crocus and tulips
Set inside the stiffen arm of a tree
I move and stretch, warmth courses into my bones
I watch Persephone walk by with her mother
Passing on the light of color and warmth
Dressed in a ruffled dress of buds and flowers
Lilacs resting in her hair rose buds at her feet
Small hands collecting the painted eggs
Hidden beneath the dried grass and emerging life
Her touch awakening colors
That spreads like golden water ahead of her footfall
As her basket fills, so does the air
With sound and scents and vibrant warmth
Roll me an egg across the darkening sky
The first full moon of spring, hearken
Persephone walks with her mother
Yesterday and this morning I took my walk looking up. The trees are just starting to bud. And the flowers are just beginning to show their colors.
The ground is littered with dried left over leaves, brittle and grayish brown, crunching under foot. Even as the grass makes an attempt to turn green, as the moss pulls on its most brilliant lime green coat of the season. The main show is taking place above ground; branches are turning colors as spring moves through them. Don’t miss the show!
“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” ~Mark Twain
Within the past two hours, I have seen heavy fog, thick dark grey clouds, and a bright blue sky, that shifted to a pale whitish-blue.
A bellowing cloud of smoke passed through my house as the farmer burned off the dried grass around the creek bed. The thick heavy smoke made it a little uncomfortable to breathe. So Uriah and I headed off to the mail box and I took pictures of the blooming, Pussy Willow as Uriah disappeared to wade in the pond.
Uriah came back out of the cold pond and pulled his fat tummy across the grass, this is his way of toweling himself off…
Why is it
when the air cools
I can feel the past,
I shiver and sigh…
The sun rose slowly, over a humid, cool and very clear moment. The air was still. I watched as two dozen Robins pacing out the yard. I was an interloper into their world, for this moment, they let me stay.
I gripped my hot coffee cup, held it close and stared out over the empty field. The sun was hidden behind the clouds that sat on the horizon, I looked up the sky was shifting to a sleepy blue above me, without a slip of a cloud.
This time of day holds loosely to a cool silence. Where nature is kind and allows us to wake up slowly as nocturnal animals drift off to sleep.
I use to walk out in this quiet, barefoot. I would step easily around and over rocks and spiders. It is the spiders that are awake; they weave and repair their webs all night catching insects unawares in the darkness. Now those webs shimmer with icy dewdrops and I stay on the deck.
I was a perfect stuffed monkey 
Reddish fur with a beige tummy
face and feet
Until an animal got to me
Now, I lie here without arms, legs or ears
Even my tail was chewed off…
Maybe it was coyote
A raccoon
A fox
or possibly… a skunk
Could have been that rat
That rat
That steals Uriah’s food and rawhide bones
That rat
that digs the holes around the kennel
under the garden, and
tunnels alongside the horseradish plant
One day the hawk will come by, and sit
Quietly on the railing
waiting for that rat to make a mistake
when he is dancing
on the top of the kennel
Just under the floor boards of the deck
He will scramble up
to look in the kitchen window
at that point, the hawk will strike…
And that rat will be no more
To late for me, I lie here without arms,
or legs, and ears… even my tail is gone
I have all the time in the world
To wonder
Now what..?
Check out everyone at Jingles Thursday poets rally-
http://jingleyanqiu.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/thursday-poets-rally-week-11-march-24-30-2010/
Yesterday I opened my curtains to a heavy snow storm. I stood at the window for a second, then turned away to make a cup of coffee. When I came back the hallucination was still out there.
The day before it was in the middle sixties, warm sunshine, trees budding, birds singing out ,”Spring! Spring!”
This was a big surprise; I knew the temperatures were dropping. When I took Uriah out for his nightly walk I had felt the cold air moving in. But I didn’t expect this! Three to four inches of snow on the deck and a beautiful holiday scene cascaded down in front of me.
I needed another cup of coffee.
Uriah ran outside happy. Very happy! He loves the snow. I pulled on my boots and zipped up my coat. Grumbling, I grabbed my knit hat, shoved it on my head and walked outside.
The snow was perfect for snowmen, snow angels and snowball fights. None I planned on making or getting into.
The birds were silent in the heavy snowfall. The water on the path had drained off. With the coating of snow, my boots never touched the mud.
Directly in front of me a mole popped out of the snow. He was very surprised to see me; even more so when Uriah grabbed him and tossed him up like a squeaky toy. Ouch! Quickly, Uriah stepped back afraid that the mole was going to bite. The mole never got back up…
Today- the sun came out and started melting the snow on the deck. Water poured into the outside dog kennel. Uriah sat out in the yard in the sun and watched the snow disappear over the chipmunk holes.
I shuffled over to the garden and pointed at the large hole next to the dog kennel. “Stare at this hole!” I poked the soft dirt with my ski pole. “And when he comes out, toss him up in the air!”
Uriah glanced at the rat hole. With a heavy sigh he walked back to the chipmunk hole and sat down and waited.
