Mother Earth's entertainment

Lately, our home has been graced by a very special "guest greeter," a small squirrel who sits on our front step with folded hands and observes visitors who come up the front walk -- until I unwittingly open the front door to let them in and scare the little critter away.

Mother Earth provides us with so much more entertainment than we realize. On my morning walk today, there was another squirrel way up on top of a spruce tree, throwing down pine cones. I stood at the foot of the tree, wondering how long it would take the squirrel to land one of his prizes on my head. They were flying fast and furious, bouncing down branches, and Shadow-pup was quite confused about where they were coming from.

But the most interesting entertainment of all came in the dead of night last week, when Lee and I were awakened by an almost unearthly, blood-curdling howl outside our bedroom window. My immediate reaction was that something had frightened Shadow or he was having a nightmare and yowling in his sleep, but where was he? Snuggled into bed with Julia, blissfully unaware. Lee jumped up, went to our window and saw a coyote on the neighbour's lawn under our oak tree, howling his or her heart out. Not the nicest lullabye, but pretty cool all the same, especially when we realized that there was a whole chorus of coyotes singing back up vocals in the distance.

From the antics of magpies to the flight of a bumblebee, Mother Earth's creatures are ready to entertain us whenever we open our eyes (and ears) to her.When was the last time nature entertained you?