My Experience as a Leaf Cutter Ant

A grouping of wild Violets.

                Everyday brings out new blooms and more leaves popping out to begin their new journey. Several of our native wildflowers are blooming in our yard, including Trilliums, Bloodroot, Spring Beauties and May Apples, to name just a few. One wildflower in particular, is beautiful when blooming in groups. It’s the wild Violets. Some people might consider them a pest as they take over quite quickly, but I find them quite attractive and they are one of the first to showcase such lovely blooms this time of the year. The grouping in the above photo is growing around the base of my beloved Mulberry Tree, in the backyard. It is actually just one of several Mulberries that I will greatly enjoy eating from later this year!

Wes with his long awaited gravel pile.

        Well, it finally arrived this past week. . . the mountain of gravel, that Wes has wanted to finish the paths in the backyard and layer over the larger gravel in the back driveway. And so it happened, the nice man came in the big truck and dumped an entire load of gravel, in a spot in the back drive, nearly eleven tons of the stuff! Then it began, the slow and tedious process of relocating and spreading the gravel. I felt like we were two leaf cutter ants, as we slowly and methodically carried our little buckets or pushed the wheel barrow loads of the treasured gravel, each to the new spot it would call home. Having the active imagination that I do, I began to laugh the more I pictured us as two leaf cutter ants carrying and relocating our treasure. I thought of how silly we would look to someone watching from up above, making myself laugh all the harder, thus making it quite difficult to carry my bucket at times. About seventy loads and fifty buckets later, we were finally done. One thing for sure, manual labor makes for a good nights’ rest.

The Redbud blooming in the secret garden.

       The secret garden is coming to life and beginning to display an array of colors of blooms and foliage. Ms. Shrew and Skinny continue to enjoy their pecans and we have excitedly discovered that there is another Shrew living on the opposite side of the yard. His name is Fuzzy as he is quite fuzzy and a bit disheveled looking compared to the other two Shrews, living in their palatial home. It also sounds as if there are two more Shrews living down in our back wooded area that have verbal disputes quite frequently. Star Wars has nothing on us, as we experience daily Shrew wars!

"Middle Prong in Autumn" by Wes, measures 3 1/2 x 2 1/2

       Wes finished his painting this past week, titled “Middle Prong in Autumn”. This miniature landscape painting was done from a photo taken during an experience we enjoyed, while hiking to Spruce Flat Falls, in the Smoky Mountain National Park, this past fall. We also did some exploring on our own and this was one of the lovely spots we found while doing so. The painting sold the first day of its début on the website. I continue to work on a piece of an interesting looking bug that’s perfected the art of camouflage. I hope to finish it in the next couple of days. Wes and I both had paintings accepted into the Art of the Animal Kingdom XIV, being held at the Bennington Center for the Arts, in Bennington, VT. We also have a number of pieces in several other shows that are listed on the exhibit page of our website.

Well, we’re due to have some very cold weather the next two nights, but are hoping that it doesn’t get as cold as predicted, as this will wreak havoc on many of our flowers that have come up. . . we shall see.

Until next time ~ Rachelle 🙂