You know you're neglecting your yard when...

It's been a tough weekend, but my grandma is still hanging in there. Thank you for all of your prayers and concern :) Henry and I prayed for her at Mass yesterday morning, him with his usual toddler "whisper" so that the entire sanctuary could hear our intentions. I'm certain everyone thought it was cute. At least I hope so.

Anyway, in the midst of all of this family crisis, an unusual event happened in our backyard. Despite my manic painting, I simply have not had time to attend to beautifying our yard. I also don't have a green thumb. Plants fear me. I love them, therefore I stay away with my angel of death powers. I should, however, weed the low maintenance landscaping that we do have, but since I'm focusing on the painting, plus add in working full-time, caring for Henry, and keeping the house clean, I'm fresh out of time and energy. So, our yard is looking a bit bedraggled. Mike keeps the grass mowed, but it's seen better days.

So, the other day I spot an Eastern Cottontail rabbit in our backyard. Boy, these are cute little buggers. Silky ears, absolutely heavenly looking fur, and faces cute enough to beat the band. They are also incredibly destructive to backyard gardens. I've always coveted them in my yard, because I have nothing for them to eat but weeds. People with flowers loathe them. This year, we planted vegetables, so the mean gloves have come out. We went from "OOOOHHHH! Bunny!! Hi Bunny! Aren't you adorable?" to "Hey *you*! Get out of there! SHOO! SHOO!" pretty quickly.

So, over breakfast I spot an offending bunny rabbit. He wasn't near the vegetables; the marigolds seemed to be doing their job. But he was acting strangely. He had honed in on a patch of dead grass that I've tried to replant and revitalize for two years running now. He was ripping up clumps, and with a flash of white tail, disappearing into our heavily weeded landscaping near the back fence. I was starting to get suspicious, but Mike seemed strangely unconcerned, convinced that the rabbit was just hungry. It was leaving the tomato and pepper plants alone, and that's all he cared about.

Well. The next day Mike went to spray some weed killer on the grass, and came rushing back into the house.

"THE BUNNY IS HAVING BABIES IN OUR BACKYARD *RIGHT NOW*!!"

Oh fabulous. Turns out the 'he' was very much a 'she.' I like the cute bunnies, really I do, but I wasn't expecting to have to be quite this accommodating with my property. So, not only do we have to worry about random neighborhood rabbits eating our vegetables, now we have a full fledged family of them out there to fret over.

I rush out there, Mike on my heels with a bag of carrots. Mommy bunny is in the nest that she built with our grass, trembling with fright. Although she normally would have scurried off at top speed with the approach of dreaded humans, she was sort of stuck for the time being. Mike, suddenly converted to a tremendous love of bunnies who are in the family way, lovingly tosses carrots over toward the nest.

"Honey, don't scare her!"

"I just want to make sure she has enough to eat. She needs to keep her strength up."

*snorts* Pretty soon, mommy bunny hops out of the nest and retreats to the back of the yard to bathe and eat more weeds. We creep over to the nest. Inside, are a gaggle of teeny, tiny bunny rabbits. All squirmy furless bodies and kicky limbs. We call reassuring things to the mother, that we wouldn't hurt her babies, though she ignores us pointedly. Mike leaves more carrots for her, and we go inside.

It was all quite fascinating. But, for the love of heaven. My landscaping has so many long weeds that rabbits are nesting in it. This is beyond embarrassing.