Our Little Neighbors

One of my most favorite delights are the little unexpected things that pop up among the regular ordinariness of our days.  (No, not those turn of events like my refrigerator dying this week and having to get a new one while we're planning a wedding.  I said unforseen 'delights.')  I'm referring to those prodigious moments that add an extra depth or sparkle to life that you had no idea were around the corner.

Or in the tree.
Or between the pillars.
Or on that branch.

Gardening has brought a depth of living to my life in the growing of our food.  I've just loved watching to see the first green of shoots pushing up through the soil; checking on their progress and maturation each day; picking ripeness of reds, greens, and blues; even snipping fresh blooms and dead-heading old ones.  It has also tucked in little twinkles of the wonderfully unpredictable.

Last year we found there was a frog living in a crack at the base of one of our trees.  As I sprayed my cucumbers with water one day, out he (or someone who looks alot like him) came, jumping up to his front door once more, blinking in his pleasure at the shower I gave.  Here he is:

What was even sweeter was a few weeks later.  I aimed my hose at his doorway and he obligingly greeted my girls and I.  But as we watched, here came another frog just a bit smaller, climbing forward to sit on his head.  And unbelievably, just like in a quaint storybook, there came an even smaller frog to sit on top of his head!  I didn't have my camera with me that day to capture their unassuming pose, but my daughters and I laughed with surprised delight at the gift we were blessed to witness that afternoon.

On another day, I'd sent L out to move some fragments of cement stones out to place around our back garden bed.  She came inside a little while later, all in excitement.  There between two old ornate pillars was resting a small little bunny rabbit.  The girls donned gloves and carefully captured him, cuddling and loving on this little bit of fluff before we released him back into the wilds of our backyard.  We have no neighbors behind our house, so no doubt his real home is hidden within the woods there.  Want to see him?

Last week I was collecting cherry tomatoes.  I was aware that the birds around me seemed to be making a good bit of ruckus rather close by.  Suddenly I gasped as I spied a precious little baby cardinal sitting on a branch right in front of me, not one foot from my face.  What a dapper little 'do he had, growing in a little to one side.

His Mama was trilling away in the tree above me, watching over her wayward one.  We monitored events over the next few days as she fed him and repeatedly demonstrated flying from branch to branch. Eventually he was gone - we're sure he learned his lessons.

What sweet unheralded delights we've been given among our sweat and toil.  Thank You, Lord.


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