my little fuzzy one

This evening I hauled the 1/3 full forty pound bag of blended bird seeds out back all the way practically to the golf course to fill the furthest feeder for the birdies that congregate in the patch between the woods and the shed under which the groundhog lives; the same groundhog I oohed and awwed over Saturday afternoon when I looked out my bedroom window and saw him back there standing up in groundhog fashion :)
(after I got out of bed at 1:15PM on Saturday following 14 hours of sleep- this work/school thing is getting to me!!)

Next I pulled the bag of seed in to the tree in the center of the yard and left it at peace as I filled the two suet feeders that are frequented by downy headed woodpeckers and flickers when the black birds are not hogging it.

I wondered where my beautiful, loving 'stray' black kitty was but we had visited earlier for her lovin's and her belly was full of chicken and kibble. I hoped she was in her shed, warm and resting.

Next, inward to the feeders 15 feet from my bedroom windows. I reached in and grabbed the quart-sized wonton soup take-out container scoop and saw something oval and gray flit away from my hand.

A mouse? Could it be?

I looked into the bag. A mouse indeed! An adorable little fellow (or girl :) with big, round ears and gray-brown short shiny coat and those big as buttons round, black eyes. He did not seem very scared at all; but then neither was I. I tried to scoop him up in hopes of putting him somewhere deeply grassy, or carrying him back towards the house (yes, to let him back in to the porch) when he climbed onto my arm

I was delighted! I worried about this wild mouse being skittish and biting me, but he did not seem at all like he would. (I even tried to pet him. Shhh!!!)

He crawled up one arm and down my back before crawling to my other shoulder as I walked to the nearest shed. He sat on my shoulder and I looked him over, certain he was the same one I saved from my cat in my apartment two months ago.

I lowered my arm toward the ground and he hesitated before leaping off. He sat on the dirt at the edge of the shed and we watched each other for several seconds before he ran on under. I got a full scoop of food and left it at that edge.

I told him as he ran off to stay away from my outside kitty friend.

I am hoping he finds his way back in.

to the last finally

In the second summer I lived in a house by the sea in Long Branch, in the first and last summer Jason lived with me, in the season Maine first captivated me, I often listened to Sting's "I Was Brought to my Senses" while gardening covered blissfully to the top of scalp in dirt wet, caked, and dry.

I daydreamed through my plants to the garden it would become. I pet them and coddled them as they grew then marveled when they outgrew dependence upon me and took on strengths of their own, when my job was keeping up only with the weeding and watering.

I listened to Mercury Falling, but mostly this song, and dreamed through my gardening and ocean walks of getting back to Maine.

My four years in Maine became a separate life and it's no exaggeration that a Yankee magazine can bring me to wistful tears.

Now when I garden I hear this song, and when I hear this song the sweet Maine air falls on my face all over again and I dream.