neighbors

Tonight I put Pearl to bed, falling asleep right at the moment the local wood thrushes began their nighttime songs. If you've never heard them, I recommend checking the link. We have at least two in our forested neighborhood.

These are wonderful neighbors. Others include a little tree frog almost killed by our cat; lots of toads and other tree frogs; tons of moths and gnats, carpenter ants, bees (including some honeybees); snails, slugs, tons of spiders and caterpillars, including a White-Marked Tussock Moth caterpillar [check out this great site for a good picture]; a busy family of raccoons, maybe more than one family; a lone bear (haven't seen it yet); and many mice and other small rodents.

And we never go about gardening or hanging out around the house without something long and poky. Our pregnant next-door neighbor was charged by a (probably) rabid and injured raccoon, in broad daylight. She managed to pin its fly-ridden body with a rake and kill it, thankfully. I sincerely hope we never see one.

We also have two neighbors who burn their stinky trash. Said smoke travels directly into our house, onto our clean laundry, and gives some of us headaches. We're working on these neighborly relations, though. You can guess these neighbors don't live in the trees.