A summer day in the year of the virus (2020). Sitting on the little deck enjoying sunshine (filtered by an umbrella to avoid burning). Spritzed the area with peppermint oil to repel bugs and apparently managed to attract one renegade yellow jacket (sigh….) Chippy and Chipette, our two local chipmunks, have been stopping by. Their quizzical expressions imply that they had assumed it was their deck and view me as an interloper. Chippy is currently eyeing me from a tie wall to see if I will have the audacity to stay. (I will.)
Today on the deck — I am under round-the-clock surveillance by Chippy and his crew. They trade off doing shifts on the tie wall to keep an eye on me. So far I am behaving.
Back out on the little deck. Chipette was on surveillance duty but abandoned her post when I brazenly said “hello”. So Chippy made a couple of runs past me to be sure I am on my best behavior. Aha! My little sentry has returned, observing from afar. The greenery is so peaceful. A small squirrel scuffle is occurring on the hill. Three of them, apparently playing tag, although I suspect a bit of flirtation as well.
Eerily quiet today on the deck. No surveillance by Chippy, Chipette, and company; no squirrel frolics on the hill. No birds. So….I’m wondering if the hawk has been stalking the neighborhood. I haven”t seen him today, but he did buzz by a couple of days ago.
Well, of course, just after I posted the above, I had two birdie fly-bys and one chipmunk scamper-by. Hmmmm…?
Good things: Since he has been unable to get rid of me (surveillance and staring me down don’t work), Chippy has decided to befriend me. He now visits me on the deck, and I think he is interested in negotiation for shared occupancy…perhaps with a shared meal or two in the mix. Chipette, of course, is avoiding me as she is wimpy (and may still be miffed about my making fun of her a couple of years ago when she kept running up the pole to the bird feeder and repeatedly bonking her little noggin on the preventive inverted pie tin halfway up).
Well, I posted on social media about my Munk family and received a warning from a well-meaning friend to beware the furry fellas. Okay, I am already really old; there’s a deadly virus lurking; there is horrendous social and political unrest all around; and now I’ve gotta worry about an otherwise friendly but potentially rabid chipmunk???!!!
Hmmmm…he has approached me for a couple of days now with no incident (ran under my chair once)., sooo….
An Observation about Change….
Hmmmm….Just saw a headline on a weather site claiming that the earth’s axis has shifted due to climate change. Interesting…but, since earth’s axis has constantly shifted throughout time, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that climate change occurs because of earth’s axis’ shifting? (And I’ve actually visually noticed the shifting since the morning sun now shines into windows further north than it did 40 years ago. The house has not moved relative to the earth, so I’m guessin’ it’s the earth moving relative to the sun…since it does that anyway via revolution and rotation. Just sayin’….)