Day 250 – Dive Bomb

My dog Ella has the run of “her” 6 acres southeast of Denver. Although she is a horrible guard dog, she takes pride in her swatch of land and prowls the fence line, digs holes all over the field searching out the  critters who destroy my flowers and veggies which is one of her primary jobs and she does it with intensity making sure to walk the entire property daily, especially the shared fence to the north that is Caesar’s domain (as well as about a dozen Alpaca.) Ella is pretty low key, easy going like most mutts, and a lover and constant companion. She is an all-around great dog. In fact, she’s still sporting her blue Arthritis Walk bandana from a few weeks ago – she’s got arthritis too and walked for a cure! Ella goes about her day with a single mindedness and focus mostly consisting of eat, sleep, get critters, bark at the UPS man, sleep some more. She doesn’t stray too far from these tasks – she is consistent and dependable as a (wo)man’s best friend should be. In fact she’s sleeping at my feet under the desk as I write this.

Every spring we get a family of birds called shrikes who move back in to some nests surrounding the house. They set up home and generally make it very clear that the yard is theirs. We love seeing them each year but, this year before the shrikes moved back in, a family of blackbirds appeared. The blackbirds have been interesting to watch as they chase the other birds around the yard creating such a commotion that you can’t help but stop and take notice – to take a moment to look at the display. Their squawk makes their presence known and when we go out to garden we are watched and fussed about. Although they seem to be an annoyance, they are actually just simply entertaining. Ella trots out around her yard, minding her own business, and gets dive bombed! They swoop and swirl and squawk and get so close that she actually has to go to the bother of lifting her head up to pay attention to the nuisance – but that’s about the extent of it as she trots back along going about her business.

Until tomorrow.

Jenna

Day 250 was created in pen & ink and watercolor.