Good morning. As most of you know, tomorrow is Good Friday and I will be taking Friday off to begin the Easter Weekend celebrations. So what does that mean for posting? well it means that this afternoon I will be writing up tomorrow’s writing Prompt and Fifteen Minute novel and scheduling them ahead of time. I will also be posting Chapter 13 of The Ties that Bind for those of you who are subscribed to the members only section. So all in all things will look as they usually do, it will just be written a little early. And if all goes as it should, there should be little difference. But that is for later, shall we go ahead and start off with our morning prompt for today? Excellent.
Okay I went to check on my garden this morning and noticed that we had a rabbit infestation, so I suppose this was a rather timely prompt in my world. I also just soaked the growing things in soapy water which the rabbits really don’t seem to care for.
Thursday, April 14th: Rabbits scampered across the lawn.
Rabbits scampered across the lawn. I held still in my place in the window, not wanting my movements to spook them. I wasn’t sure if the rabbits could see me through the glass, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I suspected they would at least see the movement. I leaned forward slowly trying to get a better view. There they were, scampering across the backyard. They were everywhere.
The sizes varied. There were large rabbits , small rabbits and various middle sizes.
‘Must have been several litters born at different times,’ I thought watching them scamper across the yard. They nibbled the grass.
‘Fine, fine,’ I told myself. ‘Fill up on the grass.’
They nibbled at the low hanging leaves of the bushes demarking my property line and separating it from the road.
‘That’s okay,’ I thought. ‘I should have trimmed them so they didn’t touch the ground anyway.’
Then I saw the big dark cray one take a few hesitant hops towards one of my low planting beds. New growth was just starting to spear up through the black earth of my soil. The vegetables and herbs I recently planted finally large enough to be considered growing instead of simply sprouting. The rabbit sniffed. I held my breath. He stretched his wiggly nose closer and sniffed some more. I leaned in closer to the window glass. The rabbit got close enough to touch the leaves…and then he backed away, hopping out of the bed and back into the yard.
My plants were untouched. I let my breath out slowly but caught it again as a lighter gray rabbit approached the planting bed. The same thing happened. And happened again and again. Each time the rabbits approached they would get a whiff of the plants and backed away,.
“Yes,” I yelled. I leaned away from the window and began jumping up and down. ”Yes, Yes Yes,” I air punched up like was at a rave and danced around my kitchen. Outside the rabbits scattered. But I didn’t care I knew what I needed to know. The spray I used on my plants worked as rabbit repellant. I would need to apply it after every rain storm, but it worked. My plants had a least a hope of surviving, unlike the year before when they had been nibbled back to the earth from which they sprouted, tiny little green nubs turning brown and dying off.
“Yes, yes, Yes,” I yelled continuing to fist pump the air as I danced around the kitchen. It was a victory! My first in the garden. It seemed once I planted it the natural world viewed it more as my welcoming them into my yard with an all you can eat buffet than anything I might want to use for myself. The low plants were decimated by rabbits and caterpillars. The deer took out the fruit trees and what that lot didn’t destroy the squirrels did as they used their furry little paws to dig up the soft earth of my beds, sending bulbs, seeds and seedlings flying through the air as their acorns were planted in their place. I had uprooted many a budding tree from my garden beds as the squirrels forgot them and left them to sprout in the excellent soil of my garden. I would still need to battle with the rest, but at least I found something to deal with the rabbits.
‘One down,” I said. I spread marmalade on my toast and took a victory bite.
Ten til Midnight 