Ocean, Meet Teaspoon

Day 88: It begins: the 2020 version of dipping the ocean dry with a teaspoon. My first Douglas squirrel of the year showed up on New Year's Day, or at least that was what I thought I had seen with the tail of my eye, dashing for cover under the hellebore. I wasn't certain until day before yesterday when I inadvertently surprised one in the bird feeder. It leapt out, narrowly missing my face in its haste. I went immediately to the garage for the Hav-a-Hart live trap, and then remembered that a friend had sent me a smaller double-door version which she'd never used. I didn't really realize how much smaller it was until I set them up side by side. Doogie didn't show himself until some time in the night or early this morning when his plans for feeder domination were foiled by the Squirrel Trapper Pursuivant. Prisoner No. 1 is slated for transport to Mineral later this afternoon.

Aw, Nuts!

Day 333: I went to visit my fishing buddy today and took him out in his wheelchair for a long ramble around the compound. We sat for a while at the fishing pond without fishing, simply enjoying the sun and friendship, watching the big trout swim and rise to take dragonflies from the surface. The grounds are park-like: immaculate lawns, old trees casting deep shade, covered walkways, carefully groomed shrubs, and everywhere, fat Douglas squirrels scurry about for the peanuts residents provide. As I was watching one particularly plump female, my eye fell on this happy sculpture on a pedestal under a central canopy. I angled around, trying to get the real squirrel in the shot with it, but unfortunately the depth of field I had to use to get a good exposure on the sculpture turned the live animal into a blur. You can still see her to the left of the statue's tail, sitting upright in a similar pose.