Baby Squirrels and Daffodil Surprises

Hello Friend,

What a beautiful day! You can see many of my neighbours are out in this lovely weather. I often hear neighbourhood voices through my open windows these days. We’re all tired of being cooped up.

Please come in. 

I thought of having our visit outside, but The Cowboy is still busy with Operation Yard Face-Lift, and we would be trying to talk over all manner of singing saw or droning drill. It will soon be a lovely peaceful place for tea and a chat.

His latest project is to repair and repaint the lawn furniture. We have chosen the brightest, happiest colours we could find – yellow pansy, mint liquor, and glass bead (whose name doesn’t give you the slightest clue to its colour, it’s actually a sea foam blue). The colours remind me of those old paint cases we used to take to school …

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Now, I made an old favourite for tea today, Lemon Square Bars. Tart and sweet, they are perfect with a sensible no nonsense tea like English Breakfast Tea “Produced for the United Kingdom from pure Ceylon Teas packed in Sri Lanka”.

To top it off in regal style, this tea comes from a royal-purple-coloured tin adorned with photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It must be the real thing. 🙂

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The Cowboy and I went for a short drive today, and the streets are just as busy now as they were eleven weeks ago when everyone’s lives took a sudden turn. Our province is now in Stage One (of three) of the Relaunch. Every province is different in their scheduled re-entry to life outside of isolation. On one side of us they have launched one of four phases. The province on the other side is in phase two of five. 

Whatever the stage, it’s all so precarious. None of us has been here before, really, and we’re cautiously finding our way. Still.

When will we ever get out of that mode, of finding our way? It’s tiring, don’t you find? Mentally wearing.

However, there is still joy and beauty all around. This has been a week of surprises. Some delightful, as all surprises should be. First of all, a smattering of the tulips I planted last fall turned out to be daffodils. It’s a giggle, but when the first daffodil bloomed I remembered that I had indeed planted daffodils as well as tulips. That’s been fun, to see them blooming one by one.

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The other object of delight this week has been a family of squirrels in our back yard. There are four babies in all, cute little rascals. And mischievous! Scampering back and forth in the eaves troughs (I suppose some countries call them gutters) at five in the morning, trampling the cucumber plants. Maybe eating them too? At any rate, the cucumbers will have to be replanted.

The first time I saw a little critter in my garden box this week, I ran outside to chase him away. But he’s so little he doesn’t even know to be afraid yet. He hid behind the planter, but within five seconds he popped his head and front paws over the edge to peer at me, less than two feet away. I shook my finger at him. Don’t you chew on my plants!

He looked me over and seemed to listen very carefully, and then he scurried away. I’ve since seen him, or his siblings, in the garden box again. So, he’s not very obedient. Internet wisdom advises getting a dog, among other things.

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We’ve had a few unwanted surprises this week too. Unsettling, disappointing, heartbreaking surprises. Interesting how the nasty surprises have to do with people. People I know and people I don’t know, making choices that send ripples out far beyond their own little circle. Added to the crisis we’re already living in, it’s almost too much.

As I’ve tried to process it all this week, I’ve come to the conclusion that all I can do is ask God to give me grace. Grace was certainly not my first reaction, but it needs to be.

The truth is, the world is a broken place. But it has always been broken. In every generation, every century, grandparents have lamented, what kind of world are my grandchildren growing up to face?

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If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

C.S. Lewis

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This broken world can only be faced one day at a time. And in that one day there is beauty, there is joy. Sometimes you have to try harder to find it, but it’s there. Little gifts God puts in our path. We only need to stop and soak them in instead of blindly walking over them.

Daffodils, rascally squirrels, or Sweet Thing recounting to me on a video chat how she planted her “cubumbers and corn-on-the-knob.” These are the gifts.

Life is hard, but God is good.

This passage in my Bible begins with the heading “The Cure for Anxiety”:

Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life … Consider the birds of the sky: they don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life-span by worrying?

Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you?

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-30, 33-34 CSB

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Thank you for coming today. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Featured image, daisies and picnic basket, by Jill Wellington from Pixabay