Like many of you, we’re currently sitting in the middle of a days-long heat wave, and its effects are being felt. Not only is the air quality too soupy for much in the way of outdoor exercise, but everything is dry. Our issues are minor compared to the ones playing out in farmers’ fields all around us, and normally I wouldn’t worry about watering our lawn. I have little love for perfect lawns and mowing and all the other inputs the American lawn requires, including water. Lots and lots of water.
But it’s not just a lawn. Because we don’t work at having a perfect suburban lawn, because we don’t worry about volunteer flowers and the odd weed, our lawn is actually pretty popular with the local wildlife.
The roster includes birds, squirrels (grey, black and red), more birds, bees, butterflies, an occasional skunk (which I don’t love but what am I going to do, go out and shoo him away? no thanks!), chipmunks, groundhogs and rabbits.
It’s that last critter that’s on my mind today. An adorable little rabbit has moved in under a bush. I see the faint trail she leaves moving between the bush and the cedar hedges. I see the little circle of matted grass inside a fountain of daisies. And I see her out in the early mornings looking for breakfast, which she finds at the edge of the bush in our yard, or in the pocket of native plants we have in the planter bed. And so I’m watering, at least a little.
I’m not worried about the lawn. I’m thinking about the food sources that keep Ms Bun and the rest of our animal neighbors happy and healthy. And so I was out early this morning watering her front doorstep, helping to make our corner of the world a good place to be.
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J.R. Johnson 
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