critters – Music. Life. Joy.

Living in the wild

The view from our kitchen window

I know, I know…! I don’t really live in the wild.

After all, we have electricity, running water, internet, and a whole community of friends surrounding us.

But the fact remains that ours is a rural community, which means there are critters EVERYWHERE. And, having grown up in the very civilized environs of the San Francisco Bay Area, this remains an ongoing challenge for me.

I’m actually pretty accustomed to seeing deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, hares, foxes, and even bears in the vicinity. What I can’t seem to get used to is when the critters are inside my home.

For example, we get frogs and lizards inside our house. All. The. Time. And they are really hard to catch.

I mean, really! A lizard in the bedroom?!? That’s just wrong!

But what inspired this rant is when I went to put a new stick of incense in the holder in the bathroom and discovered…this!

I mean — eww! My best guess is that it was a spider eating another spider. All well and good, but Not. In. My. House.

(And, no, I didn’t flush it or kill it, I managed to take it outside.)

A meadow for my front yard

Our usual weed whackers have been booked up, so the meadow in our front yard has had plenty of opportunity to grow — especially after the spring rains of a few weeks ago.

I’m actually kind of enjoying it. It’s been fascinating watching the various grasses grow — some of them almost as tall as I am! — and seeing how they change over time.

I also think about how it’s providing a complete ecosystem for all sorts of little critters. Actually, I have some mixed feelings about that, given how many of those critters seem to find their way into our apartment!