Munk’s Tea Party

Seeing it through…the easel window

There are two huge windows to the left of my easel in the new studio
and outside just two steps from them is the Ruth Stout garden.

Last winter I tried an experiment of putting some bird feeders just inside the garden fence
actually “inviting” them to come inside.

That experiment has meant countless hours of enjoyment watching and studying them
with the added benefit of their thank you of helping to control the bugs who also like my vegetables.

A few months ago this little critter moved in to the compost pile.

He was adorable to watch darting between the pickets of the fence
and up and down the railroad tie edging to the new garden bed I planted around the outside.

So one day…

Yes the Muses

They bid me to go find a teacup and fill it with seed and set it up on the edging just to see…

I was hoping to snap some close ups of the birds migrating through that spring but the only taker was Munk.
The look on his face after the carefully considered approach…BONANZA !

It took him hours and hundreds of round trips with handfuls of seed back and forth to the den
before he just dumped the whole thing over and sat there filling his cheeks.

How cute I thought.

And it was until a couple of days later when I went out to check on the newly planted beans
and discovered he had thought to add some salad to balance out the carbs.

As I write this the garden is struggling to survive a season of drought
but the replanted beans are beginning to climb
and Munk has been keeping a low profile.

All of which makes Ruth happy.