Bow and the Roofer

After the storms come the repairs. And repairs bring with them repairmen. And repairmen are strangers, and strangers need to be displayed at.

I had been enjoying relative peace and quiet. When Bow is outside resting after a meal, he is usually very mellow.

I have enjoyed watching the milkweed flower by the path bloom, one little floret at a time.

Yesterday afternoon it was almost completely open. But this morning tragedy struck.

Some creature came and bit off the flower head. Now it will never turn into a seedpod to propagate its kind. My friend Kathy says common milkweed also spreads through rhizomes, but this is purple milkweed, and it depends more on its seeds.

I made a video to remember this flower by.

There are still other milkweed plants with intact flowers on my property. But I will miss this one.

On my walks there are still other things to see. Like this yucca that is blooming. Or the surprising number of pears on this one branch of the second pear tree.

There is the occasional box turtle.

Or a rabbit that pauses to look at me for a good long while before it disappears into the underbrush.

But with the advent of the roofer all that has to stop, because Bow is not going to be calm, and he has to display how very big and strong he is.

And viewed from outside the outer pen, it looks something like this.

The roofer is on the roof top, working by the chimney. And Bow is down below, watching and then displaying.

All the rabbits and turtles and deer for miles around can hear Bow displaying for the roofer. But other than that, it is fairly quiet around here.