CrittersUnits are useful things. We track time with shadows, seconds, hours, years in pairs. Distance can be handled with bits of wood or the more malleable measure of hands. I have found new units these past weeks, out in the garden: parsley plants.
A groundhog is one and one half parsley per day.
I stomped into the garden after the groundhog brandishing a hoe. The groundhog was utterly unimpressed by this. I smacked the ground and hollar'd a bit, which the groundhog may have found amusing. I flicked pebbles at it. In retrospect, I imagine turning the hose on the thing might have been more immediately effective. In any event, it has not been back, so I think I may have sufficiently unhinged it. Which brings me to my second discovery:
Rabbits are half a parsley plant a day.
At least that, anyway: I only had two parsley plants. I think the rabbits were being kept at bay by the groundhog.
I haven't seen the rabbits in a few days: a carnival of kittens has moved in. They dance and tumble in the brambles, and chase ghosts around the bases of the trees. They find me strange when I appear on the porch.
And if the cats move on, I can start rooting for the hawk again.
All content under copyright by the author. Dancing is permitted. The strange deltic glyphs in the sand under tidal flow are a pleasure to watch in their deepening. Offer not valid in Kansas. We put it down and then we lost it. It all happens in the corner of the eye. Commentary accepted at pen@goob.com, although the traps are agressive and the pointy bits simply drip with dark liquour. We have a dog, but we do not own it. Thank you.