Another Mouth

Everywhere I turn, there's an open mouth waiting to be fed.  The hummers are slurping up two quarts of juice a day now and I've already gone through fifty pounds of sugar.  I often hear a soundtrack in my head while I go about my chores and "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins plays daily, but tuppence a bag, my foot!  In addition to the mice, Gary, and barn birds, the ground squirrels are back in force.  This little twerp had to come right past my feet to get to the grain.

Yesterday being an "on" day (my on-again, off-again schedule), Bess and I went out to the garden to do that which I'd been putting off.  The Yukon Gold potatoes are in the barrel and exactly one-hundred eleven baby white onions are planted.  The label on the bag said there were eighty.  My back would have been glad to stop at eighty.  I pulled weeds from another barrel, albeit one of the smaller ones, in anticipation of another "on" day, whenever that might be.  My friend Joel must cringe when he goes past my grape vines (all two of them).  He so carefully trims and trains his and mine grow willy-nilly.  I'm just glad they grow!  Besides, the deer prune the vines on the outside of the fence.  These are seedless Red Globe grapes and it looks like there may even be enough for the birds to share with me.  The vines are covered with tiny baby grapes.  The Thompson Seedless is also doing well.  Maybe I'll get the Concord vine planted soon.  Or not.

Ralph is in training to be a mother's helper.  This water-loving cat would be so willing to wash dishes; he's fascinated by the soap bubbles and water swirling down the drain.  Cleaning the bathroom is not normally a laugh-out-loud chore, but when the cat and I are both scrubbing the toilet, well.