From A Distance

All day yesterday I watched the cycle of life, fortunately from a distance.  Mentally divorcing myself from the source, watching the cleanup committee as they went about their work down at the far end of the pen was like watching a National Geographic documentary.  The vultures were on the job at first light.  As I looked on, a pair of ears moved through the tall weeds in the south pasture.  At first I thought it might be a jackrabbit, but when the ears popped up in the pen, I saw it was a coyote who had found its way under the fence.  Coyote drove off the big birds, but they only flew as far as the fence posts to wait.  After a quick meal, he left the scene and the birds went back to work.  I understand vultures can smell carrion five miles away and more and more came all day long.  It took the crew only four days to remove all traces the last time one of the large animals died, and I don't think it's going to take much longer now.  I awoke in the dark to the song of the pack, so the night shift was on duty, too.

It was, and is, emotionally wearing so it was with relief that I accepted Cam's invitation to come by in the afternoon to pick peas.  We sat on her patio talking and enjoying the results of all the work she has put into her garden and yard.  She's got some beautiful roses in bloom right now.  I've never taken Bess with me to go visit anyone, but she and Honey are good friends and I thought she might enjoy an outing, too.  On three acres, Camille has fenced an area in her backyard (with pool), so Bessie could run loose and explore, sniff, and mark to her heart's content.  She thought a drink from the pool might be a good idea, so Cam took her in to stand on the first step in the water.  Honey goes swimming all the time, but Bess was content to stand still, not afraid but not venturesome, either.  She's not been in water any deeper than her wading pool.  Cam had both snow peas and sugar snap peas and we picked a good helping of each.  Back at home, I made a stir-fry dinner of snow peas, onions, and carrots with a Marsala sauce that was divine.  There won't be very many sugar peas for tonight because they were so good raw while I was shelling them (I have so little self-control).

It was a good day.