Mother Nature and Me

The last several days Mother Nature and I have had an interesting relationship. There were times when we’ve gotten along but other times are far from a friendly!

Take for instance Thursday morning when I was laying bricks in the shed.  I had just finished with the second wheelbarrow load of bricks and returned to the brick pile to get load number three for the morning. The first couple bricks went in fine but something went horribly wrong as I was attacked by swarm of kamikaze wasps intent on defending their brick castle. I’ll admit that “swarm” is somewhat of an exaggeration as it was a relatively small nest and only 5-6 wasps chased me as a ran screaming across the yard. And yes a few choice words came out as the wasps hit their target. Fortunately only two of the wasps got me and only once a piece – it could have been a lot worse. I’ve noticed that the wasp stings bear a similarity to the bite I received last fall when a mystery insect caused me to end up with the worst case of hiccups I’ve ever experienced. How do wasp and insect bites lead to hiccups? One word – medication! Since I know for sure what stung me this time the doctor’s office is unnecessary and I’ll grin and bear the pain while popping down the Benedryl. It may knock me out but at least it won’t give me hiccups! The stings are starting to swell my leg a little but hopefully that will diminish in a few days.

The other sign that mother nature sent my way was when I was working in the shed. I heard a strange sound on the roof and looked up through the skylight to see the distorted shadow of a large bird. I thought maybe that was a crow or even a mockingbird who had too many wild cherries to eat. To my surprise I found a black buzzard larger than my oldest child perched on the peak of the garden shed! Was mother nature trying to hint that I should get out of the nearly 100 degree heat?

Today while mowing I had a birding experience of different kind. I was riding through the backyard when a baby mockingbird who couldn’t fly hopped out of the grass in front of me. I shut the mower down then looked skyward to make sure any dive bombing mommies wouldn’t be heading my way. Mockingbirds are nothing if not territorial and even more so when it comes to offspring. I scooped up the little bird and transferred it to an area I had already mowed under the shelter of willow tree while keeping an eye on the sky.  Hopefully the mother bird found her little fledgling and brought it back to the nest.

The Home Garden Weekend Summary
This past week didn’t bring too many more wild encounters. The Grow Project and my arbor began the postings for the week. It’s too bad the nasturtiums aren’t doing better but the weather has been very uncooperative. Because of the dry and hot weather I put together a post on the Do’s and Don’ts of August Gardening. The next post was all about a new favorite tomato of mine: The ‘Woodle Orange’. You really should try it sometime and if you want a few seeds for it don’t forget that I’m giving some away. The other post of the week was on the garden shed page. You can see a little bit of the brick floor I mentioned earlier in this post.