Friday, August 20, 2010

Beyond Dustbunnies




Those who have been guests in my home very much have doubtless heard me refer to the fuzzy lumpy unidentifiable THINGS under the beds, in the corner behind the desk, etc. as "dust dragons"...because I invariably have some that are far too large to be considered "dustbunnies". When dissected, they prove to be primarily cat and dog hair, sometimes a long strand of my own, bits of blanket fuzz, dust, and other little shreds of stuff. As long as my allergy meds are working, they are quite harmless, and I don't place a terribly high priority on eradicating them unless they somehow manage to crawl out from under their hiding places and catch my attention. That generally only happens when I'm sweeping the floor for company, or rearranging the furniture.

Usually they don't move of their own volition.

Last night I was peacefully typing at the computer, minding my o
wn business, when a slight motion caught my peripheral vision. Something gray and fuzzy, about the size of a hen's egg, was on the floor at the base of the desk, near my chair. I turned to view it properly with my bifocals. Just a dustbunny, primary of Mike-the-cat origin.

AND THEN IT MOVED AGAIN, not very far, an awkward hoppish sort of motion brought up short, like a mechanical toy that is winding down.
I did a double-take. Looked again. Just a Mike dustbunny; my eyes must be playing...AND IT MOVED YET AGAIN.

I bent over and looked closely at it. I could just barely discern the poor little creature who was engulfed in a normal dustbunny: a small green tree frog. It looked rather dehydrated under all the cat hair.

I scooped it up and took it to the garage (where it could get outside if it escaped during its rescue), and gave it a bath in the bowl that the garage toads use. After much de-fluffing, I got down to just normal non-furry frog skin.

I was going to leave it in the garage, or just outside the garage door, but then it occurred to me that there would be plenty of moisture and good bug hunting around the light in the washhouse, so I took it out there. To my surprise, there was another, larger tree frog stationed there, hunting bugs!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Vine and Fig Tree

"And everyone 'neath their vine and fig tree
Shall be at peace and unafraid..."

Perhaps these comforting words nudged me towards the row of fig trees along the south wall of the green barn tonight, when I was out working by headlamp with pruning shears. I'd found the break in the electric fence, but decided the repair would be best done in daylight. And the night was pleasant, and my mind was troubled by a disruption earlier in the day.

The fig trees are one of the beings on the farm that truly brings me untarnished joy, a joy that seems to spring from their very sap. This year the new growth is already over 8' tall, spreading fingered sandpapery leaves larger than my hands in elegant alternate patterns along the branches. On many of the stiff, erect stems, fat green immature figs spring jauntily from the base of each leaf where it attaches to the branch, large at the bottom, smaller and smaller up the stalk. The hottest day does not phase them. Insects leave them alone. They don't wilt or sunburn or fall prey to disease. They are pristine, brilliant green, exotic, a dense hedge now along the barn. And as if that weren't enough, they give off a breath of figs: the fragrance of fresh figs, making the very air exotically delicious on a hot summer day. Even on a not-to-warm night, not as humid as it has been most the summer, there is a breath of them when I draw near.

And then there are vines.

The vines referred to in scripture are grapes: THE vine, not A vine. I had the pruning shears in my hand because I'd been snipping wild grape vines off of the electric fences. When Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and you are the branches," did he intend for belief in his doctrine to overtake everything as swiftly as a growing grape vine, and to be as stubbornly hard to kill? Unless I dig these out by the roots, they will spring back again in a matter of days. Living water? I cut a large grape vine one year in early summer, such that the cut trunk bent over towards the grown. Sap flowed from the cut end like a very leaky faucet for a long time, so vigorous was the life force of the plant.

But the vine of concern among the figs this year is the vining milkweed. It's a beautiful vine, with dark leathery heartshaped leaves and small clusters of white flowers. Unlike most milkweeds, it does not have the milky sap (that makes it nicer to prune out when it entangles things). But the pods are large, fat classic milkweed pods filled with silky seedfeathers. Beautiful though it is, it is a strong twining vine that quickly ties everything together in a distorted mess.

My "farm therapy" tonight was to methodically cut and untwine every bit of vine from the figs. At first there just seemed to be a few, but it ended up taking about 45 minutes. Some were so tight around the fig branches that they left indentations. Hundreds of flower clusters gleamed in the light of the headlamp, waiting to become tens of thousands of seeds. I wantonly aborted them, poor un-conceived children. Willfully, but peacefully.

For I am at peace under my fig trees, and unafraid.

Except, perhaps, of the vines.