All Is Not Well!

   Son and I have been clearing a spot back behind the greenhouse and shed for yet another greenhouse.  This one, my sweet sister-in-law gave to me.  It is one of those sort of popup things that have the green plastic top but I am excited because I plan on putting it over some raised gardens.  Fresh veggies in the middle of winter sound delightful.  Son decided that clearing the spot was the perfect chore for this week so we have been busy for the past four days.  Now, he will have to complete the task by himself.  I am sort of incapacitated.

  My chore this morning was to pick up the roots that he was digging from the ground and toss them on a pile near the marsh edge.  There, he could move the whole bunch without too much trouble.  Well, on one of the trips down the hill in the wooded area, I found a pier board.  This is not unusual as Hurricane Zeta plopped them everywhere.  The bad part is, the board was covered with about six inches of leaves and, well, I found it the hard way.  The board had nails.  My soft sneaker was no challenge for those nails and my foot now bears the results of that savage attack.  I stepped right on one of the nails and impaled the right foot.  Ouch! 

  I feel bad that Son will have to complete this project but the foot is not being too happy, at the moment.  Hopefully, this will be a short and sweet recovery and I will be back in the gardens again soon.  If it isn't one thing, it is another.  Goodness!

I Was Too Late

   I try to rescue as many critters as I can whether they be domesticated (throwaway pets) or wild.  I will go out of my way to gather up an injured or lost animal.  All of our pets have been ones that others have tossed out car windows or were going to kill because they did not want them any more.  As for wild critters, I just recently saved a cicada from ants but, in the past,  baby mockingbirds from dogs, a catfish from being stranded in a puddle and newborn skinks from flood waters.  The skinks were most likely my most dramatic rescue as that was done during the midst of a tropical storm.   All in all, rescuing critters is pretty satisfying.  You just feel good helping.

  This morning, however, that rescue did not happen.  As usual, I was up before dawn and down on the pier awaiting the sunrise.  As soon as the sky started to lighten in the east, a fluttering in the water caught my eye. Something was struggling to keep from drowning.  Oh, wow!  Time to drop the camera and help a friend in need.  Grabbing a long pole, I tried to gently lift a beautiful swallowtail butterfly from the water.  It took a few tries as the insect kept slipping off of the pole.  Finally, I had it!  Whew!  That was tricky.  

  The butterfly was hauled up to shore and placed on a pier pole that had washed in on the hurricane.  The sweet thing needed to dry out and rest a bit.  The warm sunshine would help it greatly.  Sad to say, the butterfly perished.  I was not on the pier soon enough to save it.  It obviously had met with some predator as its wings were tattered.  Poor thing!  I hate when rescues just do not work out as planned.