a peek inside the fishbowl

Screen addiction is taking a toll on children http://t.co/qKuE6IZu4x pic.twitter.com/WIzROHNfFa

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 7, 2015

• the sick days – working with severe autoimmune disease (or surviving journalism on 80 mg of daily prednisone), by Shelley Page
• The Mixed-Up Brothers of Bogotá, nytimes.com
• Why can’t anybody remember being a baby?, theatlantic.com
• Why it’s time to kick your diet pop habit, theglobeandmail.com
• 13 International Dinners Your Kid Will Actually Eat, epicurious.com
• Nature And Stuff: 9 Reasons To Prioritize A Camping Trip This Summer, elitedaily.com

So this is what we did yesterday afternoon:

The girls each have one of these Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Cameras. A couple of weeks ago I bought a bunch of film on a whim at Black’s (the store is going under and I nabbed it at a discounted price). A few of the packages were rainbow film. I thought it was a little odd, but I’ve since reconsidered and now I think it’s pretty much The Best Thing Ever.

It’s funny how much the idea of taking a photo on FILM changes your perspective and reigns in your trigger finger. You can’t take 50+ shots in one burst. You need to think carefully and assess before committing.

The camera has its quirks and it doesn’t take as sharp a photo as anything digital we have on hand, but that’s almost besides the point. It’s just nice to hold a happy memory in your hand sometimes. Know what I mean?

Part one and two are here.

We have one of those big, black compost bins in the back corner of our backyard. It’s in a part of our backyard that is out of sight, and has become overgrown. There’s no semblance of a flowerbed back there, just a shady area with a lot of random green stuff growing and an old tree stump that is slowly dissolving into the ground.

I had a bowl of fruit and vegetable scraps that I was going to toss in the composter, but as I got closer I realized there was something strange about the tree stump. There was a feather sticking out of it.

I should mention that we’ve had a family of Blue Jays visiting our garden this year. They’re hard to miss, with their bright plumage and their raucous calls and squawks and throaty whistles. I wasn’t too surprised to see one of their feathers, but poking out of the stump like that? Someone must have put it there. It’s almost as if it was being used as a sign post or marker. A flash of red caught my eye. It was a petal lying on the ground. I leaned in for a closer look and saw that beside the stump was a mushroom garden, a garden hoe, and a tiny patch of cultivated green.

As I was taking these photos, a big beetle suddenly jumped on top of the largest mushroom. (!)

I was so startled. I barely managed to snap this photo. He stayed there for the tiniest moment in time, twitching his feet and waving his antenna. Then, he was gone, melting into the shadows and the greenery.

How strange! I wondered about the timing of this interruption. Was it a message? A warning? Is he working with the snails? Are mushrooms being grown here, or moss? And for what purpose? And who’s hoe was that?

p.s. In case you were wondering, I never touch the things that I’ve found.  Especially the garden tools! I take photos and otherwise leave everything undisturbed. If you find something in your garden, you should probably do the same so you don’t frighten anyone unnecessarily.