You Win a Few, You Lose A Few

We are all happy and safe, but there is some bad news. I don't think the pea plant is going to make it. Looking at it with a bit of perspective, you can see that it is a relatively small tragedy. But I will just share with you some of the events leading up to this unfortunate melancholy outcome.

One day,  I noticed a pea pod emerging from Bow's pea plant. This was the same day when I saw the doe and the fawn, only a little later in the day.

Bow seemed indifferent to the pea pod and the pea plant, and in my presence, he always left them alone.

Even when he was displaying and the grid rattled from his assaults, the pea plant seemed safely anchored.

Meanwhile, in the evening, I discovered an odd green insect admiring itself on the mirror in my bathroom.

My friends on Facebook told me it was a stink bug, and that it would emit an unpleasant odor if I upset it. So I decided not to touch the insect and gave it free run of my bathroom, in the hopes that sooner or later it would find a way out.

The next day, I saw the moth flitting around in the outer pen. I assume it was the same moth I had seen earlier in the week.

It is very hard to focus on such a tiny moth, flitting about. Bow certainly did not think it was worth the trouble. But soon, while the moth was flitting, we heard thunder in the distance, and Bow felt compelled to reply.

We went inside. The plant was still attached to the grid. That was Tuesday, May 27. The 28th was a Wednesday, and Lawrence came to stay with Bow. I asked him to use his weed eater in the backyard, as my mowing had been inadequate to the task of keeping all the weeds down. Lawrence said he would try to do it while Bow was satisfied after lunch. Bow hates noisy contraptions like weed eaters.

For me, Wednesday is a busy day. In addition to running my usual errands, my daughter and I also met with family for lunch and table ice hockey. Then I took my daughter and her friend to their voice lesson, and a kitten there was so intrigued by the music that it insisted on climbing the screen.

For my daughter's solo, we used a beautiful arrangement of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Daniel Carter. It was a very special voice lesson.

When I came home, that stink bug was still in my bathroom. I decided to try to help it find its way outside without upsetting it. I coaxed it onto a paper plate and carried it outside.

I allowed the stink bug to take its time choosing which blade of grass it wanted to settle on. Feeling happy with its own choice, it did not emit any unseemly odor. Mission accomplished.

When  I went back into the pen to relieve Lawrence, I asked how Bow's day had gone. Lawrence said it had been good, but Bow had been upset when he was using the weed eater, had knocked things around in the pen, and Lawrence had needed to stop several times to calm him, before he got the job done.

This is how the pea plant looks this morning. There are no flowers. I cannot see any pea pods. And everything is droopy and not climbing the grid. Bow must have taken his anger out on the poor plant when Lawrence was out in the yard weed eating.

You win a few, you lose a few. All things considered, this is a very small tragedy indeed.