Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

nature red in tooth and claw

Yesterday I took a break from my planting activities and watched a little ant drag a big dead caterpillar across the driveway. Thing must've been 10 times his size, and even though the driveway is smooth asphalt, at his scale it had plenty of ridges and potholes.

Not to anthropomorphize, but I imagined his thought process. If the caterpillar got hung up and the ant couldn't drag it any more, he'd stop, go around to the back, and see what the snag was. When I got too close, he dropped his catch in order to scurry away and save himself. When a blade of grass got in the way, he assessed all the options and rerouted. Really fascinating to watch.

The previous day, we found half of a blue jay under the daylilies. When we got close, it tried to fly away, but with missing wing parts and no tail feathers at all, that didn't work. B put it out of its pain (we debated the intervention for awhile) and later it was gone entirely, leaving just a scattering of feathers on the lawn.

It's been sort of a vacation not to have yardwork for the last several years, but I've missed the windows into nature offered by these sorts of contacts.

In other news - we are on the East Coast. The department is still on fire (burn it to the ground, I say) and there's a constant flurry of emails. We are working on home maintenance (both our place and my SIL's) and dealing with family obligations. Good times...