Topsy-turvy!

Sometimes I work hard..and sometimes I work hard at nothing. Today, I did both! The springlike weather beckoned me to the garden early this morning with the promise of a productive day. I weeded, fertilized, transplanted, pruned, planted and watered. Then I went to work! Actually, after doing all of the above, I had the fun job of retraining the blackberry vines on the fenceline. They are all putting on buds and if I don't get this done now..well..I just won't get it done this entire summer! Even though I had pruned them back tremendously this winter, they have sprouted new shoots everywhere creating a big, hairy wall of thorns! This was not the easiest of tasks as the aforementioned thorns have a way of biting into flesh and leaving nasty scratches. Still, it needed to be done, so I worked away for an hour or so...then I had enough! Let the vines be free! Let them take over the garden! Let them be until the next time I am ambitious enough to attempt this!

After the blackberry struggle, I became totally enthralled by a small critter. I had noticed Ms Put, the cat, batting at something in the mulch. Thinking she had cornered another lizard, I set out to rescue the poor creature before it was mortally wounded and became breakfast. For being such an old cat, this feline can still hunt rather well and has no fear of animals twice her size. Thank goodness whatever she had this time was rather small. As I neared, she skittered away and left me staring at the ground. It took a few minutes for the old eyes to focus on the critter in the midst of the mulch. There it was..a poor garden snail trying its best to right itself after being flipped upside down by a giant furball. It almost seemed to be an impossible feat as the pink shell appeared to be far to heavy for the snail to flip. Try as he might, he was not getting very far. Poor little, topsy-turvy snail!

I watched as it strove to upright itself and in horror realized that the poor thing was being attacked by a single ant..or perhaps the single ant was being "en-slimed" by the snail. Either way, I think the snail received notice that the ant was present because suddenly with a jerk (as much as a snail can jerk) it withdrew into its shell. I could not stand to see the little fellow in pain so I lifted him from the mulch and sat him in a little puddle of water. This seemed to relieve its agony a bit. Soon, it started out of the shell again..and since this is not necessarily a snail that would do well in water, I moved it to the flower garden. There it can happily munch on my bulbs and I can blame it on the slugs! It is a wondrous thing that snails are so readily accepted whereas slugs are bane to a gardener's bliss!