Circle of Life

I'm on my way out the door but wanted to post a few photos that I found from around the change of season several weeks ago.  We are expecting the fall leaves to be taken by the wind in the coming days and for the temperatures to plummet.  I don't lament the changes in weather or the loss of seasons, simply because knowing change means that you are alive, and being alive is good.

We lost a chicken this weekend.  Blondie was preyed upon under the Full Frost Moon on Thursday night.  Out of sheer laziness and a false-sense of security, I did not latch the gate to the coop before crawling into bed.  I feel like an asshole, and I'm sad because we won't see Blondie run across the yard with her cute Zoe Deschanel-jogging-gait.  She was willing to let us hold her on occasion and was the sweetest surrogate mother to the chicks that she hatched and came along with to brood late in the Spring.  She wasn't even supposed to stay with us, but since we weren't certain the hens she had roosted with at her home coop would take her back, and we took such a liking to her- she stayed. We will miss collecting her eggs, and I'll probably frame a few photos of her for around the home.  Cherishing, especially, this last one from the time I was home alone and Blondie wondered in through the back door and I let her look around until I thought we were close to the 'dropping a turd' zone, then corralled her back outside.  The boys loved her, and so did I.

On Saturday, I piled a plate high with noodles and bolognese for Blondie's Brood- a sort of "Sorry I got your mom killed," feast.  I imagined they were searching for her when I saw that they were foraging on the far side of the yard which they had never visited to my recollection- which was where the trail of Blondie's feathers led.  Truth be told, I am freighted to happen upon her remains but have a sense of responsibility to find her all the same.

It's all very circle-of-life- I know that she was nourishment for other living things, and I hope this all doesn't read as if I feel that Blondie's death was some sort of tragedy- I don't feel that way at all, but I do miss her- in the same way that I will miss this season but will never mourn that it passed.