Tending the Vibes
I woke up planning to get a lot done today but abandoned the idea over breakfast tea.1 There were marches all over the country today. People were protesting the president and how he’s being bossy and not following the rules—or even the laws. This is my first weekend to myself in over four months, and there’s no way I’m spending it in a crowd of people who are all carrying signs and shouting (as they low-key keep an eye out for somewhere to pee when they get a chance). Instead, I’ve been doomscrolling in between naps and hanging out in my backyard.
A lot is going on back here. The yard animals are quickly adjusting to my presence. I’ve even begun recruiting my own band of blue jays. At least four or five of them stop in every morning for free peanuts, courtesy of yours truly.2 The grey squirrels like them as well, but the scurry and dray in my yard are a gentle and timid bunch.3 Meanwhile, the blue jays are cautious but brave and typically win the day.
There are lots of chipmunks out here, too. My neighbor, Fred, has installed solar-powered vole repellers that beep periodically throughout the day. They don’t work. Not even a little. His yard has twice as many chipmunks as mine. I’ve started feeding mine berries and sunflower seeds. As it turns out, it’s far easier to attract chipmunks than it is to repel them. One particularly brave ground squirrel, whom I call Macho, likes to sit and watch me from the garden ledge fifteen feet or so away. We hang out.
Sometimes there are rabbits. Other times, not. Always, there are sparrows chattering and robins chirping in the treetops.4 A pair of mourning doves has nested around here somewhere. They spend the days quietly pecking around the backyard or hanging out on the doormat at my front door. In the early evenings, cardinals and grey catbirds show up for an hour or two before heading off to do other things. The fireflies arrive at nightfall. There are not so very many, but they have a presence.
The backyard is a very different vibe from the city streets, but don’t get too comfortable. A feather left behind in the grass hints at an early morning massacre. Hawks patrol the skies all day long in a relentless search for prey—the cuter, the tastier. A sleek and silent Bombay makes her rounds at nightfall, cadmium yellow eyes bright against short black fur. The world is a dangerous place, wherever you go. Always has been.
Footnotes
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The coffee here is not so good, and I’m not great at making coffee for myself, so I’ve switched to tea. ↩
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Blue jays absolutely love peanuts. ↩
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A lot of people call squirrels tree rats, but those same people also call pigeons rats with wings, and they probably don’t like cats either. They obviously haven’t thought things through. ↩
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The song doesn’t lie. The robins start in on the rocking before five a.m. and don’t let up until almost ten p.m. ↩