Tuesday: Early morning moment

We have a large and sweeping Littleleaf Elm tree that butts right up against the deck, spreading leafy arms over it and the roof of the house. Last week, it was very windy for several days, and on one of those days, an old nest fell from the tree and onto the deck, behind the glider. It was a huge nest, loaded with scavenged items that were no doubt collected from our neighbors decks and yards: shoelaces, shreds of plastic grocery sacks, twine, bits of rags, tangled weed whacker line, and lots of small twigs, leaves and grass for good measure. It was a neat object unto itself, so none of us moved it, but sort of studied it from its vantage behind the glider.

On waking up this morning, I heard a rustling noise on the deck, and peered out to see a huge squirrel examining the nest, shaking it as if it were a Cracker Jax box, hoping a surprise would fall out. Around and around, the squirrel turned and shook the nest until it gradually fell into separate hunks. The squirrel dropped the nest, picked up the largest hunk (which contained a lot of weed whacker line and shredded grocery bag material) and ran up the tree in a flash. Is he readying for winter, recycling nest parts for his own snug home? Time will tell. Those few moments made my day, and it hadn't even really begun yet.