Family of Five Fox

Dear Mom,

Occasionally I’d see a red fox in the yard. They are rather sly. One I believed I told you about had jumped to the island in the middle of our pond, snatched a duck egg, leaped back and ran into the woods—all in the matter of seconds. Really, seconds. The graceful creature didn’t miss a beat.

I don’t know if the fox was male or female. Who could tell with the quick movements, but I gather it was one of the parents to the five young fox I saw the other day.

Writing in my bed—my favorite most producing place to write, my cat Smeagol jumped up from a deep catnap and stared out the window from the headboard. Curious, I looked. Holy cow. One, two, three fox. No, four. Wait, five. I watched as intently as Smeagol… for different reasons.

One fox lay on the driveway not moving. I wondered what was wrong with him. His siblings would take turns checking on him. Sniffing. Giving him a little tap. Making him roll over. Jumping over him.

When one was on duty, the others would frolic in my garden. Bouncing into the grassy bushes, leaping over the Knock Out Roses, chasing one another. They dashed about playing, and keeping an eye out for Mr. Something’s Wrong Fox.

I finally grabbed my camera. I didn’t think the pictures would come out very good because I had to shoot them through the window with a screen. However, they weren’t too bad.

I worried about Mr. Something’s Wrong Fox until he eventually jumped up and started mingling with the others.

Mr. Hunter Fox had something dangling from his mouth, dropped it and snarled at the other two who were looking for a handout. “No way! Get your own. This one’s mine!”

The other two went off and told secrets about Mr. Greedy Hunter Fox.

He didn’t eat whatever it was, and when they all trotted off down the driveway, I went outside to examine the catch that Mr. Hunter Fox left on the rock.

I think it’s a mole, and well I’m glad Mr. Hunter Fox nabbed it, although I’m sure there’s plenty more where Mr. Mole came from. But that’s life in the woods.

Tired after all the playing, they headed home.

Flower of the Week – A White Flower off a Bush

Dear Mom,

Just like my previous letter to you on the Blue Flower, I have no idea what kind of bush this is that produces these white flowers. It was one of the first bushes I planted in the back where it likes complete shade.

Every time I bring in a different flower, the cats jump up and start to eat it. Here they are munching on this one.

And here’s a shot outside.

That tree trunk is a Mimosa tree that popped up from a seedling. Seems like in five years that thing grew from a tiny twig to a full grown tree. The hummingbirds love the flowers on the tree.

Flower of the Week – Blue Something Or Another

Dear Mom,

When I first started planting flowers and plants in the backyard, I tagged them all with these cute little metal tags similar to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, only mine weren’t quite as fancy as theirs. I also drew my own little maps of where each flower and plant resided, like a blueprint of the backyard only mine were pretty cheesy since I can’t draw. That worked well for the first few years and then I became overwhelmed. It still didn’t help me with remembering the names of the plants and flowers, although I can rattle off a few. Very few.

This Blue Something is one of those I can’t remember and my tags have long since faded or are totally gone. Now I just enjoy the flowers and forget who resides where, if they make it, what plant replaced it. I no longer dig out the drawings and add to or take away.

Here’s the Blue Something in the yard.

And another shot in the vase, but outside.

Oh, and the vase came from Jessica when she was over in Thailand for school some years ago. This vase may have come from Vietnam.

More Postcards

Dear Mom,

Not only am I receiving postcards through postcrossing, but a few smart folks are sending me postcards when they travel or just because.

This first card is from Amsterdam (Holland) – the area of the Netherlands confuses me most which I need to study and educate myself on geography.

I received another card from my friend Maya in Indonesia. I met her through postcrossing, but we send other cards to each other outside of postcrossing. It’s fun getting to know about her and where she lives. She blogs about all her postcards too.

Then I received a postcard all the way from South Africa from Victoria. She and her partner rode on the elephants!

Rita, who I featured today on my food blog traveled with her dad and siblings to see my son Casey in California. They stopped along the way and she sent me the Annie Oakley card from Flagstaff, Arizona where Rita informed me she wants to live some day and that Annie Oakley is one of her heroes. It says: Annie Oakley 1860-1926, Nicknamed “Little Miss Sure Shot”, Annie traveled many years with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Her accuracy with rifle and pistol astounded thousands who flocked to see the show. She once shot a cigarette from the mouth of Kaiser Wilhem of Germany.

Then she sent me a postcard from Bryce, Utah showing a Jicarilla Maiden (Apache) and it states: The typical Jicarilla woman’s dress consists of a beaded deerskin cape, a broad belt of black leather, a deerskin shirt, and the hair fastened at each side with a large knot of yarn or cloth. Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.

Not long after, I received this postcard from my friend Sue in Japan. I’m pretending that it is her cat and my cat getting together for a chat.

Okay, that’s my post on postcards.

Oh and the stamps from the Netherlands, South Africa and Indonesia:

Flower of the Week - Yarrow

Dear Mom,

For you and all—another flower from my garden—yarrow. The botanical name is: Achillea millefolium. Apparently this plant has herbal medicinal purposes as well. But that’s not why I grow it. I see something I like and plant it in the ground. Usually.

I love the feathery, almost fern like leaves on this flower.

Here are some shots outside in my backyard.

The black eyed susan’s are starting to crowd out the yarrow in this one spot, but I like the mixture of the two. Why not?

Oh and I found out from your oldest daughter Suzanne that daisies were your favorite flower. Suzanne asked me if I knew that and well… I didn’t. She said they are her’s too because they were your favorite. I don’t ever remember daisies in our yard, so I would have guessed roses were your favorite. Learn something new every day.

Writing and Cats

Dear Mom,

Trying to write, but I guess the cats missed me since I was gone all day yesterday. Sibling Day—at least that’s what we siblings call it. All four of your kids (Suzanne, Warren, Ruth and myself) get together once a year—just the four of us—and spend the day with one another.

I wrote about it on our ‘sibling blog’ (siblingdays.blogspot.com) also called Delights and Disasters of the Day. We didn’t start documenting it from the first year—what we had christened Sibling Day—when we made plans to do it every year. It started when Suzanne invited us to the ballgame. That was our unofficial, official first Sibling Day. I have it written down somewhere when and where we went every year since. Maybe it’s on the blog.

At any rate, it’s hard to write with cats sitting on your lap!

Book Blurb Friday #20

It’s Book Blurb Friday #20. Hosted by Lisa of Writing in the Buff. Head to Lisa Ricard Claro’s blog for BBF directions. Write a book blurb jacket in 150 words based on the photo—this one provided by her daughter, Christina Claro.

Now can I just mention that Lisa's directions say, "Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book." I'm sure that I haven't written a blurb so enticing yet, but it is all in good fun.

Since I’m a sucker for bridges, I had to go ahead and play/write this one.

In 99 words…
The Other Side

Obermoeller knew she could make it to the other side. It was just a matter of time. It had been 13 years since her first love drowned while saving her life. He heaved her up onto the bank of the Spring River and when she turned around, he was gone. Vanished. They never found his body. Obermoeller spent the last 13 years in Spring River’s County Jail for a crime she never committed. Find out the compelling story of Obermoeller’s quest in finding the painful truth of her first and only love once she heads to the other side.