Fall Harvest and Death

My haphazard planting of some fall veggies has paid off.

As Finley was digging a big hole 'to step in,' she noticed that one of the radishes had 'grown'. I allowed her to pluck it from its nest of soil. It was much larger than I had anticipated.

This stirred a little excitement in me, so I returned to the garden after snapping the above photo to see if there were any others ready to be harvested. I couldn't find any that looked as promising but pulled four more anyway. They were a little on the small side. I think I will exercise some patience and wait a week or so to dig up the rest.

Earlier, I had been watering down some shredded leaves in a flower bed, and noticed a body of feathers behind an autumn clematis vine. I suspected that it was a dove that had lost its life somehow. As I don't especially enjoy being startled by an animal jumping up in my face, I called Chris out to confirm the status of the bird. After he assured me it was indeed deceased, I asked him to dispose of it for me. 'That's why I married you,' I said.

In the days of my youth, I wouldn't have hesitated to grab one of the dead animals that my ferocious cat had slaughtered. Then something happened to me. I think I was a little traumatized by the successive deaths of some beloved rodents. First, I was started by the cold, stiff body of my hamster, Butch, one day when I put my hand around that cute ball of fuzz to pick him up. Then, a few years later, to come home to find my rat, Ed, in a rather unnatural pose...

As my husband points out, I'll have to get used to that kind of thing again if we are to own a farm. (But again, isn't that what he's for?)