Living in the pristine wilderness with the multi-hued evergreens banking up the mountain slopes and the breathtaking colours of a morning sunrise over a lake glistening and moving gently are joys beyond compare.
Unfortunately, it isn’t all gazing off into the beautiful and wild yonder. We have the occasional mundane thing to deal with. Uninvited guests show up now and then. Though these guests do serve as an important reminder that we are the ones to have taken up shop in their backyard and not vice versa, we still must deal with them.
A friend of mine used to call them wee critters to lessen the shudder factor. It does sound a bit nicer than vermin, for sure. I’m not averse to sharing the news that we are visited by mice now and then. Good grief, a much more famous author than I made word mileage writing about the joys he and his partner experienced while sharing bread crumbs in a country kitchen with a favourite mouse. Oh Timothy Findley, we miss you!
We aren’t quite so friendly with our mice. And that is all I’ll say about that!
Then, of course, there are the bugs. Today, we’re dealing with the Annual March of Ants through various parts of the cabin. Oh joy. I suspect a few of them are beating on huge drums and throwing batons in the air. There even may be a cartwheeler or two amongst them.
Don’t get me started on the family of squirrels that has taken up residence in part of our roof. They at least have a cuteness factor going for them. Every morning they scamper down the cedar shakes and hop, lickety-split across the deck. On their way to work, I suppose. Come evening, they repeat the trek in reverse. I have caught myself occasionally trying to capture their antics with my camera. Something I have yet to consider when it comes to mice or ants. Currently, there is peaceful co-existence. We accept the fact that part of our home has become a high-rise for squirrels. They can rest easy until the fateful day when Bruce gets up there to redo the roof. Then it will be back to the trees for them.
Country living – never a dull moment.
Hello there, Mr. Banana Slug. Hope you like your reflection.
disappearinginplainsight 
A treat to read. Your words painted a very clear and real picture of the goings on at your lakeside home in the woods. The whole picture made me smile. Say hello to all your little guests. Happy Sunday to you All.
We’ve just come through a week of adding two granddaughters to the mix. Lots of fun and so many teachable moments about life in the country! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I’m glad I was able to convey so clearly what our day-to-day reality is like.
wonderful how
the beautiful space
is shared with
all beings 🙂
We did seem to come to some sort of equilibrium with the ants – they agreed to stop marching through the food cupboard and I agree to grant them life – LOL.
We’re beginning to see the Annual March of Ants as well! Also the spiders. Such fun. 🙂
I always get the feeling I will cause it to rain if I stomp on a spider – I often do remove them to the great outdoors.
Do you have a cat? I used to live way out of town on a six acre lot on the Olympic Peninsula. My cat had such a good time there because the next door field was full of field mice. I enjoyed watching her patience as she sat at the edge of the field waiting for her opportunity.
We’ve had a few cats over the years and never lucked into getting a real mouser. Our last cat would hardly bestir himself to go after a mouse that walked right past his nose. To well fed, I suppose. Oh well.
Ah yes the march of the ants. That doesn’t happen in this house but I have experienced it. At the moment it is spiders trying to set up house indoors.
Removed a huge spider who was making its way across the ceiling over the bed. Please . . . that is the limit. The thought of a spider falling on my head in the middle of the night is just too much togetherness for me.
In my distant past, I slept under mosquito netting to stop the bugs and crawlies from falling on me.
Love the image of the Ant Parade Fran 🙂 Maybe they’ll do a special Irish version tomorrow, leprechaun hats and everything.
That wouldn’t have surprised me at all. With the granddaughter baking fest we’ve just had in our kitchen there was more than enough crumbs to go around for everyone – even leprechaun ants carrying shamrocks and wearing green hats.
Fran, this post brought a smile to my face, along with a reminder that every perspective is relative to one’s experience. As you know, my husband and I are hard-core city folk, and when the kids were younger we bought a car and braved the transition to life in suburbia. That was nine years ago, yet some days it feels like we’re still getting used to it. Just yesterday we were laughing at the re-emergence of all the critters that come with the springtime weather — carpenter ants crawling out of the drain in the bathroom, rabbits and chipmunks scampering through the backyard, and to top it all off, some unknown creature that seems to be residing in our chimney (and driving the cat to madness). As Thom shook his head in dismay at this latest infestation, he asked me to remind him why we decided to move to the wilderness. Yes, everything is relative 🙂
Yes, indeed, Gwen. Compared to city life – suburbia is the wilderness. Last summer when our granddaughters were up visiting us in the ‘real’ wilderness – a bear and two cubs was spotted roaming up and down the lane right behind their house in a huge subdivision. The critters and the wildlife are everywhere. So glad you stopped by, Gwen. I’ve been so busy lately with family and editing, I’ve hardly had a moment to spare for the blog world.