The Goldenrod Chronicles, 4 Things
+ a mystery photo
Really hope the mystery photo drew you in. Hi and welcome to “4 Things” where I will try to practice writing something that is not a work email. (Just had an awful flash of omg what do I actually do all day long a work??!!)
Part 1. Nature is Tragedy (but really just nature)
Saturday morning I noticed something different on the wall of the garden. In that way where your eye will catch anything that is out of place. Upon inspection it was one dead baby bunny on the wall, with a dried bloody splotch next to it. I noticed Roux nosing around in that area earlier in the morning. Oh no! Did Roux kill this adorable, soft-furred baby bunny?
I looked closer, beyond the garden wall, to notice another dead baby bunny in the garden bed with one prominent puncture mark on its next. Poking around some I noticed the rabbit nest was build under the wall, with the opening right where the soil butted up against the garden wall.
Both tiny and soft babies were already cool to the touch and rigid - they had been dead long enough for that. I scooped them both up and put them in the compost pile - maybe with the hope that some bird or other creature would come grab them.
I felt less worried (or guilty) after realizing Roux had not committed bunny murder, and spent all day wondering what animal finds its way into a bunny next and picks out the babies - without actually eating them.
Sunday morning, there was a new baby bunny dead in that garden patch, just outside the nest. It was also air temp and rigid - another night attack.
Roux was interested in the area, and the tiny rabbit corpses - but in a way of curiosity and not a way of wanting to keep digging and killing. I think she was also curious about in the food web committed this crime!
I went out to run errands Sunday night, with Roux, and we came home later - after dark. As we turned into the drive, the headlights swept across the front yard and shined a spotlight, and then startled off, a racoon digging in the exact area of the rabbit nest.
Mystery solved.
Roux did spot this furry friend in the yard, crawling under HER OWN PORCH and went absolutely bat-shit bananas and had to be carried from the car into the house because she may have a little interest in dead baby bunnies but she has a lot of interest in very large, very alive, very (shockinbly) fast moving racoons.
Part 2. A rising tide lifts all cranes
In my last missing I wrote about the good bird days, including the Sandhill Crane sitting in a nest in the middle of a pond by the side of the road. The type of pond that is small and therefore fills up quick when it rains.
Well. It’s been raining and the waterline rose enough to now covers most of the nest except for about an inch of nest material and the crane is just holding her ground against water and staying (regally) put.
Part 3. Photo Mystery
These are a handful of little plants just emerged in the prairie. I can’t figure out what they are - any ideas?
Part 4b Another plant photo - this time not a mystery. These little gems just came up (The leaf in the middle, diagonal from bottom left to top right.) I forgot I included these in the seed mix, know what it is? (I do!)
Bonus. Part 5. I found this nice piece of cardboard. I decided to keep it. It lives in my bag now.
But golly gosh when I heard this phrase (about river restorage from native area) and this line felt line *something*.
I think I’ve fallen asleep three times trying to write this - and I’ll take that as a sign. Enjoy your four things. (And if you know what those baby plants are drop it in the comments).
🌱vanessa