Friday February 20, 2009. “Tell me I did not just bring my laptop out into the garden with me…” That’s what I wrote yesterday.   I thought it was bad enough that I was going to bring some proofreading out with me, when I was supposed to be relaxing in the garden before a busy weekend of work.  Since I was going to proof read, I picked up pencil, highlighter, notepad… I could see where it was going so I just tossed it all into the briefcase and brought that out here.  I admit it, I’m a workaholic.

Here are yesterday’s notes from the garden: A very loud plane is going over at 7:51am, heading west.  Now that the hurricanes of 2004 and the fires took down some big oaks and pines around me, I can see a large expanse of sky from my west woods.  I love that about my yard.  I can see the birds flying back and forth and surfing on the winds now – before I never could.  Too much tree canopy over me.   I can tell the armadillos have been at it again.  They root around through the soil and leave little burrowed up piles of dirt and leaves in their path.  I like it because it keeps my ground nice and porous, so everything grows well.  They also dig up neat things like little animal bones that I try to piece together and figure out what they are.

Wow, I never use my laptop without using an external keyboard and mouse.  This is quite a trip.  The keys are so small and flat.  Jeez, I would surely have to cut my nails down to the nubs to use this keyboard all the time.  And navigating around without my trusty trackball mouse.  Slow, slow, almost frustratingly slow… I will learn… I know if I use this keyboard and trackball enough I will become faster with it.

I hear the cardinals are at it early.  They are so loud.  I always know where their nests are.  When I am getting close, they set up a real fuss.  I can always tell by how the male acts toward me how close I am to their nest.  Little squealer blabbermouth, if he didn’t yell at me I wouldn’t know.  I can hear a woodpecker doing his thing across the street and the owl in the hammock at the end of the road giving a final hoot before full daylight invades his shady home.

I can see the pigeons/doves lining up on the utility wire, there are only two so far.  The early birds.  I can hear a couple of sets of birds calling out around the neighborhood.  Sometimes I bring my Peterson Eastern Birds field guide out here to identify them.  There are a lot of those little finchy looking ones around, flitting in and out of the oak branches.  I tossed some sunflower seeds for them on the roof of the shed, where my cats are too lazy to go.

I see a long, lone black snake slithering her way home under the shed.  She helps me cut down on any pesky critters, like mice and moles and such, so I’m glad to share space with her.  Like the bats, I see them sometimes at sundown and love them because they keep the misquito population from getting out of hand.

Ah, here come a pair of squirrels chasing each other along the oak branch.  I used to feed them peanuts, just for the novelty of having them so close so I could watch them.  Then I thought I was enabling them so they might not fend as well for themselves when I tired of the novelty of feeding them.  Plus we had peanut bushes come up all along the roadside.  So now they do get the occasional peanut but mostly have to rob the bird feeders for sunflower seeds.

All the leaves are coming back on the trees and the yard is getting nice and shady again.  Wow, the birds are out in full force this morning, oh I know why.  I am writing about them and so I am attracting them!

Ok, enough typing, let me enjoy the garden.  That’s a common dilemma for me.  Do I get to just sit and enjoy what I am enjoying, or shall I write down how much I am enjoying it in the moment of it to share it with you?

I get to enjoy so much good stuff, it almost seems selfish or wasteful not to share it with everyone else.