a peek inside the fishbowl

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.

This giveaway has officially ended! The name of the winner has been posted in the comments below. Thanks everyone for your entries and I hope to see you at Saunders Farm this summer!

Fishbowl patron Saunders Farm is very well-known around Ottawa for the spooky fun they provide for Ottawa families around Halloween, but have you ever been there over the summer? It’s an adventure that is not to be missed, and a fun and active thing to do as a family. We love this place to bits.

Here’s something good to know: for the past few years Saunders has really been pulling out the stops as it pertains to feeding people. Sidebar: To THIS DAY, Mark won’t stop talking about the Amazing Pulled Pork Sandwich he had there. He actually suggested my pulled pork could be a little more like THEIR pulled pork. The nerve! ;)

Saunders commitment to food – local food at that – goes beyond the humble sandwich. Once again, Saunders is hosting some wonderful dinners on the Farm. They’re called “Farm to Table” dinners, because that’s exactly what they are. The first one this year sold out, but there’s still time to get tickets for the three dinners remaining in this year’s series. You can look at the menu/dates right here. (They are droolworthy.)

Three cheers for good food… and summertime fun!

But back to the giveaway at hand! I have four tickets for one lucky family to enjoy a day of summer fun at Saunders. Would you like to win?

• This giveaway is for admission for a family of four, to be used sometime during the summer of 2015.
• It’s easy to win. In order for your entry to qualify, just check out the Saunders Farm website and let me know what your kids would love most about a summertime visit to Saunders Farm. That’s it! One entry per email address please.
• Want another chance at winning? Leave a comment on this Facebook post. Just leave a second comment below letting me know you did so!
• This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.
• If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder.
• I will draw one winner using Random.org at noon EST on July 14, 2015.

That’s it! Over to you. Good luck!

I am still puzzled by what I found in the garden the other day, even though I have always suspected there were Strange Things Afoot. There have been many clues. Our dog Piper, for example, seems to stare off into space when she’s back there, and sometimes she spends a lot of time carefully sniffing one spot. I’ve also seen cats prowling though the grass even though there were no birds in sight.

I never thought much about these things until I started to pay attention.

A few steps away from the hostas is a miniature rose bush that was given to me as a gift.  It’s a pretty little thing. Its flowers are so intensely, blindingly, pink that the colour can hardly be captured on camera.

I’ve been watching the rose bush since the snow melted, as it slowly came back to life after a very long and cold winter. Amazingly, it survived. After I time I noticed it hadn’t just survived, it was going to flower. The first tiny bloom was so tightly wrapped, with a little trace of pink showing through, I thought it might burst. Every day I peeked out the window to see its progress until one day I saw the rosebud had been nipped off (!) and chewed to pieces. At the time I assumed it had fallen victim to a troublemaking squirrel, but now I am not so sure.

There were no more nipped buds after that first one, but I still watched the bush. Everything was fine until I spotted something amiss when I was watering it the other day. On first glance everything appeared to be perfectly normal:

No nipped rosebuds, no insects attacking the leaves, nothing out of the ordinary… that is, until I leaned in closer and looked underneath:

There, under the rose bush, was a tiny red rake, scattered bits of rose petals, and pieces of broken snail shells on a small patch of cleared earth.

I don’t know what to make of this scene. Had I interrupted something? Was this snail related to the one who ran over the tiny toadstools? Is there a war going on that I don’t know about? Were the petals scattered there deliberately or by accident? And who was raking under the rosebush: a cleanup crew or a gardener?

It’s all so mysterious.  I will keep looking, but I’m afraid I may never find the answers to my questions.