Monday, September 21, 2020

All things spare, strange...

 


                              

 The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider-Joan Miro

   Nowhere in this painting by Joan Miro do I find a sun or a spider but I do see something else that jars a wonderful memory.

  My dear daughter-in-law loves squirrels. They are fluffy and busy and nothing like it lives in her home country of Australia. Most of us see them as pests, gnawing on a shed door, or hanging upside down from a bird feeder but not her.

 I was in Australia once walking a path to the beach when I heard a rustling in the leaves behind me. I turned, expecting to see Sammy the Squirrel. I was stunned to see what was headed towards me; a 5 foot long Lizard with his beady eyes scoping me out as he charged. I ran like someone possessed. I later found out that if you stand still they will climb you thinking you are a tree. Yay!!!!

 But this is about squirrels and the unforgettable brave one in my yard that Fall day. He was rooting around near our bird bath when a red shinned hawk catapulted to the ground holding a red winged black bird in his talons. His intent was to bear down while the bird struggled to breathe. The squirrel watched, twitched back and forth, and then unbelievably charged the hawk, ten times his size. The hawk let go and off flew the bird. I can only think that the squirrel deliberately rescued the blackbird. How amazing. What a wonderful creature!

  "Glory be to God for dappled things-

For rose moles all in stipple upon trot that swim,  for finches wings; All things counter, original, spare, strange: Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow, sweet, sour, adazzle, dim;

He fathers forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him."

Pied Beauty-Hopkins

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