Most enjoyable evening

S and I had eye appointments yesterday. Apparently the doctor could see no muscular reason for S's lazy eye and gave him a bit of a strengthening exercise to try and keep that eye from wandering. The same eye is also slightly near sighted, but not enough to be concerned about as yet.

On our way home we picked the A-man up from his day with Jazzy's brother. Sounds like they had an enjoyable day, too.

When we got home, the boys got ready and went for a swim. Yes! We have the pool up and running finally! While they were swimming, I decided to continue to pull the huge weeds out from my gardens and pathways. I filled the wheelbarrow 4 times...

I finished my weed pulling by my favourite place to sit in the garden, and was inspired. I came in the house and grabbed my book - Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul - a wine glass and a bottle of Cab Franc. I also grabbed my bug jacket. I went and placed these items on the bench, then went and raided the A-man's wood pile.
I started a nice wee fire in the chiminea that I placed in my lily garden this spring, and sat on my garden bench (which is between two big pine trees) while reading my book and having a glass of wine! It would have been perfect if I hadn't needed to wear netting over my body, but we can't have everything now can we?

It started to get darker, and I could no longer read, so I just sat on the bench watching the fire and sipping my wine. Suddenly I could hear sounds of water moving behind me and over to my left. I sat very still and listened. The movement and splash sounds started to come closer... and closer. (Behind my garden bench is a long ditch that runs the length of our property - we have ducks in the spring, and once had a beaver build a damn in the ditch.)

I turned to look into the water area to see what was heading my way. The bushes were moving ever so slightly, and the moving water sound was very close. Suddenly, I saw it. At first I thought it was a duck, but it wouldn't make sense that I would have heard that; they are usually silent. My eyes peered into the darkness, slowly adjusting to the dimness, and I then realized that I was looking at a baby raccoon. "Oh, hello!" I said. The wee little guy just sort of froze.

The next thing I knew, there was some serious growling coming from the ditch, a little further back than where the babe was. Momma. I watched the baby scamper out of the ditch and head to some trees on the other side. It was facinating to see him just climb that tree like it was flat. I heard, but couldn't see, more scammering into the trees. Momma continued to growl at me. I told her that I wasn't going to do anything, but she didn't seem to want to listen. By this time I was sitting on the edge of my bench, ready to run if I needed to.
I guess she realized that I wasn't a threat to her babies, because she stopped growling at me, but I know that she was sitting watching me. I finished my wine, made sure the fire was just about out, and headed back in to the house. (I guess these are the critters that have been trying to get in to my chickens.)

Not your everyday occurence, that's for sure! I could have done without the growling part of the evening; I was scared of her jumping out at me, and I didn't even really know where she was. I didn't think that she would attack - that is something they only do when cornered, or when someone is harming her baby, but still - it was quite the growl.

I did enjoy the sitting by the fire in my favourite spot of the garden - I will have to repeat this part of the evening again!