|
|
Day One: Monthly Letter
Dear Readers, So let me tell you about our ground hog. We didn't know it was a ground hog at first. We thought it was the world's biggest mole. Okay, I know you're laughing out there but we grew up in New York City and didn't have a whole lot of experience with nature in the raw. Mole. Woodchuck. Groundhog. Badger. They were kind of all the same to us city kids. Besides, there were giant holes all over our backyard and big mounds of dirt next to them and scrabbling sounds whenever we walked past. Sounds like a mole to you, too, right? Wrong! I woke up one morning last week, poured myself a glass of orange juice, then -- as always -- I went to step out onto the deck to enjoy the morning sunshine and the bird song. I opened the verticals, unlocked the sliding doors then -- Hold the phone! What on earth =is= that!? A giant furry adorable creature is sprawled out on deck sunning himself! I swear to you on a stack of bibles he looked up from grooming his paws and smiled at me.
Moles are cute? Why didn't anybody ever mention that? This guy is adorable. Our furry friend stood up, stretched, then waddled over to the steps where he lumbered down and disappeared into the wilds of our backyard -- but not before I got a good look at his furry tail. Moles don't have furry tails. But what does? So I did what any red-blooded American woman raised on a diet of Nancy Drews would do: I ran to the computer and Googled myself an answer. Our visitor is a woodchuck, also known as groundhog and he is probably burrowing his way into our basement as we speak. He's been with us now around three weeks and he's starting to seem like one of the family. My husband and I have a fairly laissez-faire attitude about the creatures with whom we share our yard. If they don't bother us, we won't bother them. We get enormous enjoyment from the birds who swoop in and out to visit our feeders. Even the wacky squirrels are a source of amusement. Did I tell you the squirrel story? Apparently squirrels are the Osmonds of the backyard wildlife universe -- they are reproducing in record numbers back there. We've seen more tiny baby squirrels (with enormous fluffy tails) in the last month than I think I've seen in my life. Which is all well and good until they start growing a little bigger and start chewing their way through our bird feeders. We're willing to toss seed on the ground for them, we're willing to look the other way when they're swinging from the thistle feeder, but when they started trying to knock down the brand new squirrel-proof feeder Roy put up for my birthday -- well, that's a declaration of war. Now neither one of us would ever so much as harm a hair on a squirrel's head so violent methods of discouragement were out of the question but there had to be something we could do to steer them in a different direction. We knew the time had come to do something when I found myself on the deck in my nightgown yelling, "Bad squirrels! Bad!" at the top of my lungs . . . (It's a wonder I wasn't arrested.) Anyway, Roy came home with something that he meant as a joke but just might be exactly what we were looking for: A squirrel ferris wheel. You're supposed to attach ears of dried corn to each "station," hang it from a tree, then watch your neighborhood squirrels flock to this makeshift Coney Island. I'll believe it when I see it. The good news is that after a long dry spell the writing is flowing again. It's such a pleasure to sit down at the laptop in the morning and tumble head-first into the story and not come up for air again until late afternoon. The book I'm just about finished with (one more week, I hope!) is called "Shore Lights" and it will be released by Berkley in May 2003. I plan to put up the first chapter sometime this fall. I promise to let you know when it's available. I wish I could tell you how thrilled I am to be able to write again -- the tough times of the last few years are finally beginning to recede and for the first time in ages I'm back on track. It feels great!
Let's see what's new for August:
Enjoy the rest of your summer! Until next month,
Until next month,
With affection,
In stores now:
Archived letters:
July 2002
Bio | Free Stuff | The Secret | Just for Fun | Scrapbook | Bookstore One and Only | Sitemap | Guestbook | Contest |
August 2002
;){kind=link}