Those of you with an eye for foreshadowing will realize that if we were living out good fiction at our house, of course I was too excited about the Cardinals. We were counting our cardinals before they were hatched. And we were duly rewarded (irony) when, on Thursday morning, Harper came into our room for the daily opening of the blinds when we would see what Mrs. Cardinal was up to. We opened the blinds, and there was the nest, listing severely to the left, no Mrs. Cardinal in sight. I went out to investigate and discovered the remnants of an egg (pale green, just as the bird web-site had promised) just under the tree. I'm not sure what adjective best describes how I felt. We'll go with 'leaden' and 'devastated'. Which I realize in the scope of things is ridiculous. It reminded me of the walks I would take when I was big and pregnant with Harper. It was early spring and I cried one day when I saw a smashed robin's egg on the sidewalk. I just felt so sad for the mother robin. Anyway, I did not want to have to go in and tell the kids. Then I realized that there were also a series of holes in the yard. Deep ones. Which is disturbing. So, I called a pest control place and while I was on hold I stood outside and willed Mrs. Cardinal to show up so at least I could know that the eggs were the only fatality. And, after quite a long time, both she and Mr. Cardinal came back to the nest. They cocked their little heads and looked puzzled. Mrs. Cardinal got a twig in her mouth and started to make things right. Then they reconsidered and flew off. I was relieved that they were intact, but I grieved for them. Then a few hours later, I saw Mrs. Cardinal sitting on the fence, her beak full of new twigs. She flew to a yard behind ours. Rebuilding elsewhere. I don't blame her. The pest control guy (Kenneth, he was quite erudite on Things Pesty) told me it might be squirrels or maybe a possum or possibly a raccoon or, and this will be expensive, a SKUNK. Egg eating hole digging VARMINT. If I see you, I will get you with the bear attack spray for ruining my joy.
So the kids handled it pretty well. I, however, was in a rather irrational Deep Sadness for the entire day. In fact, I'm pretty sure I went through all of the stages of grief over the course of the morning (1."Maybe if I just fix the nest, they'll come back," 2."STUPID raccoon/squirrel/possum/skunk!" 3. "If they would just come back, I'll stand vigil 24-7. I WILL!" 4. "Why didn't I wake up earlier? Why didn't I get up when the dog growled? I'm such a FAILURE." 5. "I guess it's better this way. At least Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are okay.") When I finally walked away from the window, Hudson and Harper were talking about dancing and Hudson said this exact quote: "Well, I don't know HOW to dance. All I know how to do is split jumps and stuff," which made me smile a tiny bit. Then Helena came in and said, "I love Grandmother Pate. (pause) She is my BEST friend. (pause) I love Grandfather Pate. (pause) He is my BEST friend," and maybe I didn't feel quite so melancholy. Then she got this plastic tube thing and started talking into it, which sounded so funny that she summoned up the naughtiest sentence she could think of and she said it in a silly voice: "Hudson poo-poos in the POTTY!" and then I even giggled a little.
Then Helena's two best friends came this weekend, and we took a trip to Bering's this morning on our way to the park and Harper chose these wind chimes:
And we hung them in the tree with the empty nest and we contemplated the Nature of Life as we listened to the gentle chimes.
OR, I had to send Harper inside in tears because she refused to acknowledge that Grandmother Pate bought the chimes for ALL of us and not just her, which meant that she could not forbid Helena from touching them. Then Helena said, "NO, NO, Harper. You are in TROUBLE. You share!" and Harper shrieked, "You are MEAN! You are NOT the MOMMY!" and Hudson said, "I am SO, SO SORRY Harper," and I wished the husband would get home from his philosophy conference post haste and make it all better.
3 comments:
I am so sorry about the cardinals, but I loved the cardinal wind chime tribute. :) When I was about 11, we had a nest outside a window in a very similar tree/bush. Everyday, my brothers, sister and I would check on the 2 eggs and to our delight we were rewarded with two darling baby birds. I don't recall the type. We lived in a country setting which did make these little birds possible prey. One evening, after dark,while watching TV (which was in front of the same window)my brother screams, "NO!!!!! the birds!" and runs out the back door. We all jump up and see a snake with it's vicious fangs in the neck of one our sweet birds. My brother grabs the snake at it's back end and whirls it around his head several times like a lasso and flings it somewhere into the dark woods. Dramatic! We check the nest and there is only one bird and it is dead. The next day, we don't find the other bird on the ground around the tree. We are MAD! We go searching for the snake. We find it! It's dead! We bring it home and show our mom, who is very "jackie of all tradesish". The boys want to skin it and she shows them how. It stinks. My sister and I stand around spraying Lysol. The boys, of course, dig around a bit and find the baby bird in the snake's stomach. The girls cry. The boys say, "Cool!". My mom pins the snake skin to a board and sits it in the sun to dry. There was talk of possibly making a hat band out of it. But it was just put on display in our garage and there it sits to this very day! How about that tribute? I like yours. It's more civilized! :)
Kristin! What a story! I think you and your sister spraying the Lysol is my favorite part.
Sometimes when Olive is mad at me, she'll scream, "potty words" because she know she can't say the real ones. Funny. Also, we have several Cardinals who nest and fly around our yard, and yesterday we noticed a neighborhood cat with one in its mouth as it crossed our yard. So sad. We had a family moment of silence.
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