Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Those Dang Rabbits!


Do you remember when I said in various essays, blogs, etc., that if you focus on the attributes of a goddess, they become part of you?  Our friend and life coach, Nancy Gerenstein, talks about the law of attraction, which is defined as “That which is likened to itself is drawn”.

Well, I am here to say that it is true in every sense of the word.  Unfortunately, this month, what I drew to me was not the great attributes of the Spring Solstice goddess Ostara, but her title and her symbol, New Beginnings and the Rabbit.
 
It appears that I now have the tree of life in my own backyard.  As the Spring Solstice dawns around us, we see the beauty that only Spring can bring – budding trees, tulips, daffodils, crocus and wildlife.  Chirping birds, squirrels, and rabbits.  Lots and lots of rabbits.

They have been hanging around my yard, cavorting, playing; but it wasn’t until I began filling the bird feeder that I was witness to the plentitude of hungry critters.  Nests of birds in the Tree of Life Maple and my weeping Katsura tree.  Mason bees foraging for food.  Carpenter bees back AGAIN, tunneling into my garage eaves.  Birds dive-bombing the feeder, squirrels on top of the squirrel-proof feeder, trying to pry open the top (which is quite a funny site to see), and birds happily sharing the feast by dumping buckets of seed onto the ground below (which will sprout and I will have millet growing among the clematis and roses all summer).

Two squirrels were wrestling on the wooden chairs my father made that surround the fire pit, tumbling over one another like two little kids.  Robins and cardinals watched the frolicking from another chair.  And very large rabbits sat quietly nearby, nibbling on the tender shoots from the small fescues near the fire pit.  I could come very close without scaring any of them away.  As if this was THEIR yard.
 
From the porch, my yard looks like a scene from Steve Carrell’s movie, Evan Almighty, complete with The Tree of Life in the center!

The very comfortable, large rabbit had been sitting in five  “out of view” places in my garden.  She thought they were not in view of anyone, but she took for granted that this is my garden, not hers, and I know every nook and cranny of it.  Upon closer view, each of these areas contained a nest of newborn bunnies!  There are bunnies all over my yard! 

I am not a visionary, but I saw each and every one of my newly sprouted bean, lettuce, carrot and cucumber plants mowed to the ground by these hungry little buggers.  And I could see bites out of each vine-ripened tomato.  Now I know I can’t blame just Ostara’s critters for this annihilation of vegetables.  I know the rabbits and birds will be sharing in the feast as well. 

So I started planning.  First I will build taller brick garden beds.  Well, not me, but my husband will (he has no choice).  And the bottom of the garden beds will have mesh so the forest life will not dig under the bed to get in.  Mind you, the beds already exist so we are talking about starting over from scratch.

I know that if you disturb the nests (no, I won’t touch the babies as she would kill or abandon them), the mother bunny will move her babies to safer areas.  Well, she didn’t.  I moved the nest covering.  She came back and moved it back into place.  This has continued over the last few days.  I move, she moves back.  I am fighting with a rabbit.

My son was playing some Middle Eastern music today and it reminded me of George Harrison’s concert for Bangladesh.  I envisioned my own concert for bunny Bangladesh when they ravage my garden and there is no food left.  Will they then follow me around like little beggar children in the streets?

Thank you Goddess Ostara, for the new beginnings that each spring gives us.  But please, please, enough already with the bunnies!

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