I am the anti-Snow White. Just like Snow White, woodland creatures come streaming from their forest homes to greet me. But instead of cheerfully offering their assistance in my daily chores, they come at me with a vengeance.
Maybe Snow White wasn’t waited on by pairs of nesting loons, but had she been lakeside I am certain the loons would have dove into the cool depths of the crystal clear waters to bring her lake reeds to dry and bundle into brooms. No such luck with my loon friends. While I admit I do love the loons, I wonder if they ever sleep. Instead of plying me with lake reeds to dry and fresh fish for dinner, my local loons start off my day with an alarm-clock awakening. Yes, even the ‘hauntingly beautiful’ call of the loon sounds more like a fire alarm when it’s piercing cry hits a high note at 4:30 am waking me from well, at least not Snow White-like sleep. And so my day of reckoning with the innocent-looking woodland creatures begins.
My first morning stop is my garden to see which dainty buds have been torn off my plants by the night’s marauding bunnies and deer. How do they know exactly which day the buds will bloom and rip them (only Snow White would refer to deer and rabbit’s incessant foraging as nibbling) from their stalks just before they open their colorful display? And it’s not just night visits any longer—my two little Bambis wait surreptitiously under cover of brush until I depart before raiding my garden in the middle of the day. Just yesterday I returned to spot the two fleet of foot thieves fleeing down my driveway and scattering into the woods across the street.
All of my woodland sparring partners are bold. I used to keep a tomato plant on my deck. But even with constant vigilance, my adversarial neighborhood chipmunk would scurry right up to the plant and pluck off a cherry tomato just before it was ready to ripen, or simply chomp into the sweet flesh and dart away.
Instead of sweetly singing with me and offering a helping paw or wing as I sweep up, I swear the chipmunks and birds are intentionally dropping their refuse just after my broom has passed. I keep my garbage can lid tightly affixed to repel the raccoons intent on flinging my garbage rather than offering their paws to shine apples, poisonous or not, for my fruit bowl.
No birds flit through my windows to turn back my sheets before I climb into bed. No bunnies snuggle on my covers to warm my feet. And the squirrels, rather than keep a lookout for a wicked witch, have chosen to take up residence in my crawl space and chew through all manner of important conduits in my walls. And so I settle down to sleep, one pillow over my head to keep out the sound of creatures chomping through my garden, and wait for the cry of the loon to startle me awake to another day.
1 comment :
Very frustratin.
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