Most days, I’m a really dirty girl. Where my husband demolishes, I have to clean and when you are remodeling a small cottage built in the middle of the last century, there’s a lot to change.
Yesterday, I was carrying out a piece of old floor tile and thinking about how embarrassed I would be if any of my new neighbors saw how filthy I had become when I heard the caw-caw of a raucous band of crows in an old fig tree in my neighbor’s yard.
Standing on an old iron garden chair, I peered over the fence up into a green world of light and shadow. Although the fig tree spreads out high and wide, it is partially hidden by a weeping willow so picturesque that I never really noticed the fig before. But as I searched for the crows up on the highest branches, I soon realized that old fig tree was loaded with sweet, black fruit the size of avocadoes.
Fruit from our various neighbors' backyard orchards
And the crows weren’t the only critters that had discovered the tree’s bounty. In fact, as I watched, a mockingbird, a couple of sparrows, and a blue jay darted in and out. A small brown squirrel with the bushiest tail I’ve ever seen scurried up the trunk as well, apparently to join the foraging. Could a raccoon be far behind? I’ve heard that figs are their favorite food.
That old fig tree was supporting an entire community of wildlife. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was concerned about being seen by new neighbors, and yet these small critters are my new neighbors, too. I doubt they could give a fig about how I looked.
The lizard I believe to be the California Fence Lizard
