Three Vignettes: Butterfly, Mouse, Outhouse

Sitting on the porch today, the sun finally out after rain and rain, the wind whipped around. The rustling of nearby leaves trailed off into a faint gusting rush further across the valley. The sun cast shadows and one in particular caught my eye on the dead grass, small and fluttering. A butterfly, methought, what a blessing. Already! Early! I looked skyward between shadow and sun and indeed it wasn't a butterfly (yet), but a leaf flittering away in the wind. One day soon. Moral: Hope and forward-thinking.

It has been getting warmer and the sun has been showing itself. So I got out the hammock poles from underneath the yurt to set them up. Of course, hammock poles are hollow and sheltered, so when I peered inside there were two mice inside one. I took the pole out into the yard and banged on it with my hand. One mouse fell out and bounced over to the woodpile. I peered again inside—one remained, clinging for, presumably, dear life. I banged again. Nothing. I peered inside. Still there. I banged the pole on a stump. I banged again. Finally the mouse tumbled out, stunned and unmoving. What a jerk I felt like. (An asshole, to be honest.) I had concussed it. S/he lay on her/his side. The dogs, obviously, were interested. I picked the mouse up with a stick and set it up in the tree. I watched it. In the sun it recovered, slowly. I pushed it off toward its partner in the woodpile, and set up the hammock. Moral 1: Don't get too comfortable in your shelter. Moral 2: Don't be an asshole.

Since the wind blew the door off the outhouse, and we've been too busy to fix it yet, we've had the distinct pleasure of a view while relieving ourselves. And what I noticed today was off in the distance, across the creek and the road and the valley, up on the hilltop across the way—a single pine dominating the rest, taller than all its neighbors, basking, I can only assume, in the great wide wonder of sunlight and views that it has afforded itself through such hard work. Good for it. Wipe, wipe. See you soon, lone skyward-reaching fellow. Moral: Be the best and tallest tree you can be.

See this admirable tree-fellow in the photo below. Zoom on in. Get vicarious. Yes, was literally sitting on the pot when I took this. I mean, what's your bathroom view?