Sunny Bunny, 10 May 2026

 

The Happiest Day of My Life (lately)

Around 6:45 this afternoon:

Across the room, my wife of 41 years 

My cat on my lap

Kaleidoscope on the iPad; I had listened to it in high school, more than 50 years ago

Useful information on Xitter, confirming I happened onto the right answer to something years ago

Homemade chocolate pudding for dessert

And then I went outside, and in our back yard I saw two rabbits.  I wanted to remember them, and make a note of all the good things of that moment.  Like the man said, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Because I Can

  

PG can't walk very far anymore, so if I want to take a walk around the neighborhood, it has to be done alone.  If I see something interesting, I take a picture to show her afterward.  This is what I'd call interesting.  Farther away in the yard were two more cottontails, but they would have been tiny specks compared with these three.  

Google calls this Wild Bergamot, aka Bee Balm.  There was a good-sized patch of it near the creek that runs through the local park.  

The oregano in our back yard has grown to a few feet tall, and its flowers are attracting numerous honeybees.  (Oregano honey?  Hmm.)  No picture yet, due to the quality of the light.  When it's nice, bright, and indirect, as in the bee balm snapshot above, I'll haul out the phone.  

And another one

 

I took a walk around the neighborhood early this evening, and moments before I got back home, this fox hurried through a yard across the street.   A few steps later, I saw a cottontail at the corner of the house where the fox had briefly visited.  

First a coyote, now a fox in our neighborhood.  The arrival of new and hungry predators means that the area rabbits -- and the mother cat who has mooched off us since February -- will have to be still more cautious.  

An unexpected visitor

Just before 6:00 this afternoon, a coyote trotted through a neighbor's yard behind us.  First time I've seen one this close!

Down it goes, too

Remember that red maple we planted on April 14?  Here's a good close look at it now.  Rabbits?  The missing parts were seemingly too tall for a rabbit to reach them.  But something nibbled them off.

Strolling with a camera-phone

Walked around the development just before sunset today and saw a number of rabbits, including this one.  All of them were in the grass, except this cottontail.  

A few moments in an ordinary day

On our way home from the doctor, PG spotted a blue heron flying above us, I'll guess about 20 feet off the ground.  Its speed and ours were close enough, and the road was clear ahead and behind us, so I got a few seconds of its grace.  

We reached an intersection with a stop light, and the bird continued over the road, descending quickly and landing on a patch of grass just outside an area that was left unmown most of the year.  Both PG and I got one last glimpse of the heron on the ground after the light turned green and we continued on our way.

A little bit from a sunny spring Saturday

Earlier today:  This is a view from the township yard waste facility.

This morning, I gathered the branches taken from the bush next to the shed, and lopped them down so they'd fit in our containers.  After dumping three containers at the facility, I went to Wegmans for milk, cereal, salad dressing and pain patches for PG's hip bursitis.  On the way there, a groundhog ran across the road in front of me, but I was going slowly enough that he made it safely to the other side.

Can't remember just when, but I picked up 4 envelopes of seeds from the Dollar Tree up the road, and planted them in a couple of containers outside the back door.  The marigolds did the best, and over the past couple of days I transplanted four of them into a planter box just off the driveway.  (The driveway was patched and paved this past Thursday.  We'll be able to drive on the driveway tomorrow.)

Apple pastry from Costco for lunch... the remainder of the NJ diner French dip sandwich for supper. Didn't have dessert.  I like wearing 36-34 jeans again.

At 8:00 p.m., it was close to sunset, and I took a half-mile walk around the neighborhood.  Along the way, I saw rabbits to the left of me, rabbits to the right of me, rabbits in front of me.   They appear to favor lawns where there is plenty of flowering clover.  

Just outside the front door

I intended to walk out the front door to go get the mail, but as I reached for the door handle, it became clear that I would have to take a different route.  Rabbits always get the right of way, especially when they are already there first.

A squatter on the property

For years, the shed at the back of our property has sheltered local suburban wildlife.  Mostly rabbits, but we believe the little black pooshka took refuge under it as well.  

There were a pair of hollowed out spots on the south side where the current residents could come and go.  But now, one of those hollows that formerly consisted only of Pennsylvania earth has on top of it a layer of stones that had been excavated from under the shed, as in the photo above.  Out of the frame were some wads of fur on the lawn nearby.  

Searches online this morning were inconclusive as to the responsible animal.  I've never seen groundhogs or skunks around here, but when we were feeding the pooshka we'd also be visited by raccoons.  

I posed the question on Facebook, and one responder advised, "My guess is a raccoon burrowing underneath to make a spot for babies especially if finding fur which they pull out to use in their dens." 

Further online searches included useful ways to learn more (sprinkle a layer of cornstarch at the entrance to obtain paw prints) and discourage them from staying (used cat litter and human urine at the same location).  

 

One Extended Moment

Before we went out for bird seed and one or two other things at Walmart, I locked the front door.  From there, I could see two robins in the yard across the street.  I had read that the temperature reached 80 degrees in Washington D.C. yesterday, although it had been 30 degrees cooler north of Philadelphia.  At least two birds took the unseasonable warmth as their cue to head north.  They were too far away to photograph, as if they were any different from any other robins on the continent.  But either they're very smart, and they know something about the upcoming weather that I don't know, or life is going to be mighty difficult for them over the next couple of months.  

However, when I pulled into a parking spot at Walmart, this sparrow was much closer, in the cart corral just past the hood.  Unlike the birds who frequent our back yard feeders, this one doesn't fly away at the sight of a human.  I had several seconds to unpocket the phone, enter the unlock code, call up the camera app, and set up the shot, then take three pictures.  

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Girl Scout cookie sellers at Walmart and at Tractor Supply just down the road.  No thanks, I can live without it.  I made cinnamon buns this morning.

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Took the broken-down boxes from the basement to the township yard waste site and plopped them in the cardboard recycling dumpster.  More physical activity than I've had in many a moon, but at least I'm not broken down.  And the basement now has more space than it has had in years.

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"On The Town" on the TiVo.  I can take or leave the dancing, and shrug at the songs and the story.  But those 35mm Technicolor views of late-1940's Manhattan make me reach for the pause button every time.  Somewhere someone has a website with a detailed list of the billboards in Times Square, and I wish I could find it.  Muttering, "... in the 30's it was Planters Peanuts, Chevrolet, and Coca-Cola.  Then in the early 40's it was Four Roses/Kinsey whiskey, Ruppert beer, and Pepsi-Cola.  After that, Canadian Club whiskey and Admiral TV and appliances from the mid-50's to the mid-60's... after that, who cares..."  

Friday off

A different day than usual.  PG and I drove to the Bethlehem ShopRite to get out of the house and out of the rut we've been in.  Cold, wet weather had kept us inside for days.  It wasn't exactly clear and sunny today, but there were breaks in the clouds that let through some sunshine as we drove.  

I found the Tropicana Pure Premium grapefruit juice I wanted, and she picked up cat food along with the rabbit food for our evening salads.  I brought out the ShopRite app to get an e-coupon that saved several dollars on boxes of cereal.  And, while she picked out an eyebrow pencil, I walked across the aisle and impulse-bought some fleece pants for $7.

We paid and I drove back west to her 2:00 PT appointment.  We went to ShopRite via I-78, and for a change I drove west on route 22.  We briefly saw a field full of snow geese, gleaning the leftovers of the harvested grain.  I glimpsed several geese flying before a semi blocked the view.

The Return

Music:  Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca.  First listen.  (1) Because Deradoorian (now with Kate NV as Decisive Pink) was in the band (2) Because it was referenced in a comment on a reappraisal of Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires of the City (a copy of which I own and enjoy) on the 10th anniversary of its release.  Interesting music from DP.  That's all I'll venture on the first listen.

The mallard pair are still visiting, and PG has looked up information on what mallards eat to adjust what she puts out for them.  Yesterday, a second mallard drake tried horning in on the pair and was sent packing by the other drake.  I got a moment of video on my phone before the fight broke up, not as much as I would have liked.

This morning, I looked out the back door and saw a squirrel rolling in the dirt where the red maple tree had been cut down.  In looking for a place to plant some phlox PG bought at the roadside store a couple of miles away, I'd raked away the remaining mulch and broken up the dirt clods.  The tree cutter had gotten rid of the main trunk to a depth of a few inches below the surface, but roots remained rooted on all sides.  I had pulled up the cut end of one of them, which resembled a cylinder about a foot long and an inch or so in diameter, and stuck up at maybe a 30 degree angle to the right.  

The squirrel continued to roll back and forth, frontward and backward, for several seconds.  I thought about reaching for a camera of some kind, but I'd left my phone upstairs next to the bed, and the cameras that only take pictures and don't make phone calls or track your every move... although now that I think of it, the DSLR can put a GPS location stamp on its photos, so I'll have to modify the second part of that clause... anyway, both the point-and-shoot with the 40x zoom and the DSLR with the 50mm prime lens were snug in the camera bag, also upstairs.

Then, the squirrel stopped, and it was as if it had spotted me somehow, some twenty feet away and behind a layer of a deck rail and row of balusters, and could see me peeking at it through the back door.  The squirrel stood up on its hind legs and put its front paws on the exposed root.  Its back paws were close to the bottom of the root, while it leaned a little to the left of vertical, opposite the rightward lean of the root.  It looked like it had been hiding behind the wood and was leaning its upper body away from it to get a better look, but holding on in case it had to pull its exposed body behind it.

It held that pose only long enough for me to wish I'd had a camera focused on it, ready to trip the shutter.   But this description will have to do. 

My day

Dot dot dot... took down the chicken wire and screen door that turned the living room into an enclosed area for cats.  First it was used when Nelson was recovering without surgery from a luxating patella, and later it was used to help Nora get used to the Pooshkateers and vice versa.  Inertia kept it in place for years after it was no longer necessary...  

Mallard pair again sighted in the back yard, Still not sure whether their nest is on our property or whether they're coming here to join the other birds who are feeding here.  The hen was determined to keep smaller birds away from the dish of water we'd set out for all...

Rain in the forecast tomorrow between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.  Just ducky...

Well, I believe it's been decided.  We're going to go for the lower-cost landscaping and save the big-ticket flooring installation/roof replacement/deck repair/window replacement and the driveway re-do for another time.  With a house, it's not (just) the cost, it's the upkeep...

Finished reading Much Ado About Me... watched Nebraska volleyball spring game, the Wheat Shockers vs. the Cornhuskers... and I dinked around with the drumsticks from time to time.  Still improvising surfaces to tap upon; mouse pads are good sound deadeners.  Keeping time is interesting, making lots of loud noise is what I want to avoid.  

Did not see this coming

Seen outside the kitchen window at suppertime this afternoon.  What attracted them to our yard?  Are they planning to build a nest here?  Given that in the past we've also played host to raccoons, starting a family of ducklings does not sound promising.

Anyway, there are bodies of water in the area, but none within several hundred feet.  It produces a mental picture of mother mallard leading her surviving ducklings across lawns and asphalt to reach the nearest pond. 

Still, it wouldn't be the first time I'd witnessed it.  These are from Hersheypark in 2006.

I don't have any more pictures, but fear not.  Traffic stopped, and the mother duck crossed the road safely with her ducklings.  

Reflecting on a squirrel

Why?  Because most of the year, this photo isn't possible.  Except for a brief period in early fall (and presumably about the time of the spring equinox), the late-afternoon sun is at a different place on the western horizon. It is rare when it can simultaneously back-light a feeding squirrel and reflect off our back door glass to illuminate it from the front. And of course, the squirrel has to be there within that brief window where the sun is in the right place.  But if we put seeds out there, well, a squirrel is likely to be there, too.

"Specialization is for insects."

This whole thing started a couple of nights ago, when I sat down on my rocker-recliner and found that the first half of that description no longer applied.  

I turned over the chair and saw only powdered padding and copious amounts of cat hair.  Remembering that I'd found a chair repairman a few years ago, I dug out the man's business card and prepared for another unexpected hundred-dollar expense.

But last night, I looked again with a brighter light and saw a bar crossing the front of the chair.  At one end, a bolt and nut held some mechanism in place.  At the other end was a hole where a similar bolt and nut belonged.  The two pieces of the broken bolt lay under the half-connected mechanism.

So I decided to go to the nearby hardware store and pick up a replacement bolt, and use the nut from the broken old one.  It looked doable, in other words.

This morning, I worked until 11:45 and came downstairs to find this half-grown rabbit outside our front door, enjoying the clover.

Driving to the hardware store, I looked across the road at an intersection and saw more suburban wildlife.

These wildflowers were growing along the gravel road across the intersection.

I'll have to use Google Images or some app to identify this likely common wildflower.

Edit:  Google Lens produces a number of results, and after looking at them my guess is that it's Scentless Chamomile.  

At the hardware store, there was a staff member in the small hardware section, and he quickly identified the type and size of bolt I was looking for.  I bought two, because if one of them had broken, the other was liable to as well.

Back home, there was a bit of work getting the carriage bolt to stay in place while I ratcheted the nut tightly.  But in a couple of minutes, I flipped the chair back upright, sat down on it, and rocked once more.  

So, it's fixed and it cost 27 cents.  An unexpected 27-cent expense is OK; I can handle that.  Besides, I got to see some wildlife and I'm going to learn more about wildflowers.  See why I'm filing this under "accomplishments"?  

Rabbit News

Around 5:30 this afternoon, I took the trash cans to the curb for tomorrow's pickup.  Walking back to the garage,  I stopped and looked out back.  Next to the shed were two young rabbits, the ears of one barely visible over the top of the grass.  At the other corner of our property, there were two adult rabbits.  Four rabbits is a new record, I believe.  

For awhile we had predators, including the little black pooshka and her mate, the big ol' creampuff, and we didn't have rabbits.  Now it's the other way around.  

Not much longer now

Returning home at 1:00 after picking up our free money from Costco, I saw a small flock of robins at the corner of Grange and Auburn. Welcome back!  Hope you're right about the arrival of spring.