THE COMPANIONS OF MY GARDEN





        I designed the garden to enrich my experiences. In the planning, seeding and maintenance of the garden, I would create my backyard dream. My dream at first did not include the squirrel or the robin that would also come and live their experiences in the garden.
    The house catty corner behind my garden is a roofless house. Without a roof, plants and grasses are growing within the walls of the house. Somewhere within the courtyard of this roofless house lives a squirrel. The squirrel climbs uses the vines that have latched onto the back wall of the roofless house to climb down to visit my garden, the next door neighbor’s backyard tree garden, and then hop along the boundary fence to venture out into the alley.
    Late in April, I spied the squirrel perched on the fence halfway between the house and the wall. The squirrel noticed me right away, and his eyes locked on me. The tail curved up, and the squirrel went rigid. Waiting. In his waiting, I studied the squirrel. The squirrel’s posture was unusual, as the squirrel normally would run and scamper up the vines on the wall. Now, the squirrel did not move. The squirrel’s tail rolls over the back and up to the back of its head. I see the orangish part of the squirrel’s undertail as it faces upward, so that the squirrel looks like a square block.
    Later, the squirrel has left. I notice a Robin hopping along the base of the rose bushes. There are four rose bushes, lined in a row, along the left boundary fence. The rose bushes tower up in their attempt to reach the top of the fence. At the base of the rose bushes is level dirt. Here, in this level dirt, the Robin hopped about. In hopping, the Robin was not affected by the fallen rose branches with their still sharp thorns. The Robin hopped, and then turned its head side to side. The eye seemed large. Then the Robin hopped again, followed by the side to side head movement. The Robin dips its head and pecks at the dirt. The Robin has hopped all along the row of rose bushes and then suddenly takes flight.
    In the mid day hot sun, I spot four wasps flying circular patterns. One lands on the rose bush leaf and walks about. Then it flies off looking for something. The second wasp lands on the plastic container edge of the Kabocha Squash seed starter. The third wasp lands on the avocado leaf. The fourth wasp lands on another plastic seed starter container. They land, they fly, they circle around in their systematic search of the garden.
    At first, I thought I would need to get rid of the wasps. But they were taking care of the garden according to their needs. And thus, I resolved to get to know them. They seemed to love the hot sun, and delighted in the heat and sun of the mid day. Conversely, they seemed to avoid the garden on cloudy days.
    In this way, I learned about the world from my garden.

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