Snowy Speculations

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If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
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Man versus Nature...

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Man versus Nature...

When my youngest daughter needed to bring in some snacks for her kindergarten class, I decided to bake some oatmeal cookies. I mixed the cookie dough, measured the cookie size so that they would all come out in even portions and put them in the oven. Once they had baked perfectly, I carried the hot cookie sheet across the house to the back deck. I had a wrought iron table there that I always placed my baking on so that it could cool outside.

While I was assembling the second batch, my daughter, who was four years old at the time, let out a tremendous screech! I came running from the kitchen to see her yelling at something outside of the living room window.

"Mom!" she called as I rushed to her. "There's a squirrel eating our cookies!" And sure enough, a fuzzy grey squirrel sat cheekily on its hind legs, stuffing bits of oatmeal cookie into its mouth! I banged on the sliding glass door and wrenched it open as he scampered away. But there was no way that I could serve those cookies now. My daughter's class was a large one and I had to cut the size of the next batch of cookies in half to make the dough last for the entire class.

The first few years of living in this house were an adjustment. We had sold our last home with a very quick closing and had not found the next property to move in to. So the five of us moved into my parent's basement for just over a month. The purchase of this farmhouse was a quick one, without a home inspection. We needed our own space! We were knowledgeable enough to see the deficiencies we knew we had to deal with once we moved in. We ripped out overgrown flowerbeds and tore away so much overgrowth from around the foundation. Mice and moles were evident in the flowerbeds and in the front and back garages. Traps were set and emptied daily. It probably sounds cruel, but we needed to get things under control. With several mature English Walnut trees and about fifty more that came up every spring in the strangest places, we had a squirrel population to contend with. They planted walnuts in the fall, we ripped out the saplings that popped up everywhere in the spring. I collected a bushel full of walnuts the first fall, but they beat me to the harvest the second year. And so the battle continues year after year.

Living in the country is a balancing act. Man versus nature or nature versus man. It's finding the happy medium that works for both sides. The squirrels need to eat so we let them have the walnuts. But we'll fight for our oatmeal cookies!

Lolita Hale

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