Slight Inconveniences

Early this morning I glanced out the kitchen window just in time to see a deer casually strolling across my vegetable garden. Hm-m-m, I thought, that seems a tad entitled. Which made me briefly ponder on the other slight inconveniences perpetrated by the flora and fauna surrounding my home. Just to name a few -- bumble bees nesting under my porch, birds pooing on my car (and sometimes on the laundry on my clothesline), skunks puffing out occasional odours and digging deep holes in the lawn, raccoons raiding the bird feeders, poison ivy lurking in shady nooks, wild raspberry canes reaching out to rip at my arms, wild parsnip madly propagating it's poisonous self across the landscape -- but wait!

Didn't I invite all of them here in the first place?

I absolutely love my jungle-like grounds and the shade and privacy this mini nature preserve offers. In any season, I can take a stroll outside and see, hear, smell or touch this vibrant zoological Eden with all it's fellow creatures, as deserving of life as any of my own species. Truthfully, the enjoyment of sharing my habitat with nature of all kinds outweighs the slight inconveniences by about a million to one.

Deer tracks beside young asparagus shoots.

A honey bee worker with frayed wings harvests a globe thistle bloom.

This mystery den under a brush pile may belong to a skunk.

Not a bee, but a tiny fly pollinating a strawberry bloom.

Honey bees tanking up at a bird bath.