With it being a holiday, I made a quick stop at office early this morning, just to make sure everything was in order before I changed my clothes, and then headed home to get cracking at some long-overdue landscape manicuring, but first-off, I went and checked my two live-traps I had set in my strawberry bed, and the first one I noticed was tipped over but somehow the trap-door didn’t drop, and that can of fish-flavored cat food was completely licked clean. When I walked over to the other trap, there stood glaring at me, a very large raccoon which appeared to have tried its darnedest to get out, but fortunately, that particular trap is an older one which was built with heavier metal. Well, all I can say, is that animal had its last midnight feeding in my strawberry patch. Of course as we all know, where there’s one, there’s more. So before nightfall, I’ll be setting those two traps again.
It wasn’t but three days ago when someone out of the general public mentioned how the number of squirrels and rabbits have grown in our city, but fortunately for me, I have a fox family that’d taken up residence where I live several years ago, and since then, there’s been few if any rabbits running around, and the squirrel population has definitely diminished as well. After having seen one of the adults chase a squirrel halfway up a small tree, grab it, and within a split second it was gone with that squirrel in its mouth, there’s no question in my mind, they can likely out-run even the fastest of dogs or coyotes. I believe they must be short-term sprinters, which is likely why they must get worn out after a long chase. They definitely are beautiful animals, and glad to see their numbers increasing in our area.
In spite of it being quite warm out, I did manage to get more done than I was expecting, but for sure, I’ll be feeling it in the morning. The bulk of my work this morning, was getting volunteer trees and vines dug out, along with doing some additional weeding and then the spreading of mulch in my garden, just to help keep the weeds under control. After my workout today, I’m exceptionally thankful for ordering that face netting that fits over my panama hat, and only because those gnats were swarming around me the entire time I was outdoors. Truth be told, I’ve never in my life seen the likes of them over these many years, and the only possible reason for them, must have something to do with our weather patters. Those darned things will follow me right into the back door of my office, as well my home.
Once the hour of three arrived, I cleaned myself up and headed back to office where I returned several calls, as well as getting a good review of today’s online news. There wasn’t much newsworthy other than Blinken’s meeting with China’s Xi. Let’s hope he’s convinced him to stop supplying Russia with any and all technologies which they in turn use against Ukraine’s army. I’m glad to see they’re slowly gaining ground against Putin’s army, so hopefully they’ll be able to create a break in Russia’s long line of defenses, so they can move quickly in re-gaining lost territories. Every day I pray deeply that Ukraine will prevail in conquering, and then fully restoring all of the territories they lost back when Russia did a land-grab back in 2014. Considering the number of atrocities the Russia’s committed since their full invasion last year, there’s likely only a small number of Ukrainians who have even the slightest of warm feelings for the Russians. Yes, Putin has a great deal of blood on his hands which will likely never be forgotten by the Ukrainian people.
Considering how foggy it was out this morning, I decided to stop at the beginning of a gravel road, just to get the above shot. I’ve always liked foggy-road scenes, because it always reminds me of the roads we’d not taken in our lives, which seem to appear at times in our memories whenever we’re in one of our ‘looking back’ modes. Yes there are always those ‘should have’ and ‘would have’ thoughts, but I personally remind myself that there’s always been a grand plan to it all, and in time, it will be fully revealed.
Looking back over this past decade, I can safely say there were a very many illuminations which I never would’ve expected from a small group of people, but on the positive side of it all, there were many lessons learned and doors forevermore closed, so I guess from a number of bad things, have come good things, and the best of all, is knowing I’ll no longer have to endure their selfish and childish behaviors. Having gone thru those painful years, I later discovered that I’m now more alert to similar mindsets in the general public, which I’m now able to side-step or re-direct. Once burned, twice careful. Right?
While out working under my three beautiful native sugar maples today, I couldn’t help remembering back when I was very young, planting all three of them when they were not much bigger than sticks. At the time, my mother was chiding me for wasting my time with the digging them up at an acreage in Nashua, then having them hauled home to be planted. Of the six I planted, four of them made it to maturity. The three that are standing in a line, I appropriately named, ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’, and only because of the way in which they grew. Faith was the slower grower, and always appeared to be struggling, but I had all the ‘faith’ that it would make it thru its difficult years. Hope on the other hand, had branches which were always reaching taller towards the heavens, and likely in ‘hopes’ it would reach its final destination. Lastly, we have Charity which for some reason, had its branches reaching more outward than upward, which was likely because it wanted to be ‘charitable’ with its shade to all living creatures below. Well, after more decades than I want to admit, all four of them are standing tall and healthy, and considering the straight-line winds and violent storms we’ve had over the years, I still find it quite remarkable they’ve been so resilient. What I’ll aways consider the funniest, is the number of times my mother would say whenever she was looking out the window during on of her visits and saying, “I wish we would’ve planted more of them.” Don’t you think that’s just too funny?
Tonight’s One-liner is: Pray as though everything depends on God, and work as though everything depends on you.
