Fleurs, Fins, & Furries

The cooler overnight temps have everyone at the night eatery (aka the Honey Shack) feeling their oats. Jasper is looking pretty stinking comfy in the late afternoon sun as he stands watch on what began as his safe haven.

As we near the end of October, it feels like one moment it was summer and the next, fall had fallen! Inside and out, everyone - finned, 4-legged, and green - is beginning to hunker down into the upcoming season when we all celebrate the rest and introspection resulting from the harvest and bounty of spring and summer.

As we near the full moon and the fall equinox, I am thinking that the term ‘lunatic’ is an apt commentary. Our raccoon family of mama and three babies recently found three over-ripe peaches outside the backdoor and tried to sneak away from the scene of the crime undetected.

The days and nights are breezy and nearly balmy. Brightness and luminosity abound . . . We miss you INSIDE AND OUT so how about checking us out again this fall?

We have been scratching our heads to account for not having seen any raccoon-ettes (babies) then lo and behold here came mama with her entourage!

At this time of the ‘frenzied chaos of summer’ as we call it, there is nearly no distinguishing between the subjects and objects of beauty presented by the Earth Mother. We were recently graced with a visit from long-standing painters MarySue and Bill Schwab

Everything green seems to be calling to us all at once with a rich, lush, and overflowing fullness.

The gods were surely smiling on us when Joshua captured these images of the finned folks literally getting into the swim of May.

What better way to ring in the Celtic season of Beltane than with the arrival of new finned folks? Former guests Shelley and Dave down in Cottonwood found themselves needing to rehome their two koi and one Plecostomus and were gracious enough to think of us – yay! Dave had the perfect net and set about wrestling the three of our charges into our transporting cooler.

In all of my well over 60 years of actively being a dirt-digging girl, I have never succeeded in having a violet root from a leaf in water . . . very frustrating. Until NOW when just on a lark I placed 6 broken leaves in a small glass of water and hoped for the best.

Everyone is getting into the spring swing!

Our fervent expectations notwithstanding, the Youngster over the upper pond again wasn’t in the mood to bloom prolifically this year although against the backdrop of the resplendent Lady Banks and her arbor, the cherry tree, the colors painted a complimentary juxtaposition of colors against a cornflower blue sky.

With no regard for our recent cold snap, the raised veggie beds, critters, divas, sprites, 4-leggeds, and little green youngsters are everywhere to be found right now.

Even the Buddha says the gifts of spring are ‘making him float with happiness!’ and Jasper is chowing down in prep for another March surprise.

In the last 4-5 days spring has simply exploded on our Coconut Island in The Sky and it seems to have begun with Joshua replanting the raised beds that, as you know, are devoted to veggies.

While it seems impossible that we are celebrating the month of March 2025 already, clearly the Earth Mother is awakening all the green folks who have been hibernating all winter. Joshua happened to capture a few of our offerings that were dotted with rain.

Mr. Peeking Cardinal. Our first Hellies. And a Getting-to-Know-You standoff between Fiona and a pitiful little pumpkin-headed Jasper wondering about coming inside . . .

With precipitation as shy as we are experiencing, we relish every morsel, drop and flake. Well, perhaps some of us relish that outside moisture more than others, ergo Miss Fiona and Braveheart Primo prefer the fainting couch snooze arena.

Some familiar faces and some long-time-no-see faces visited recently. Our daily visitors include the raccoons in the neighborhood and our subletter, Jasper, who has taken up housekeeping in the honey shack.

December always proves to be full of surprises inside and out. The 4 raccoon siblings are all grown up now and resplendent in their winter coats plus they appear plump and healthy.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral – blessings one and all. With a glut this week of the ALL-TIME SWEETEST yellow peppers on the planet, we jumped at the chance to use them in as many ways as we could imagine.

In a not-so prolific flowering season, these guys are making up for lost time.

Would that we humans could get along and accept each other’s differences, right? In all our years we have never seen anyone but pigs socialize with pigs and here these youngsters seem just fine. Is there a lesson somewhere there? P.S. and a side order of skunk.