I’m so sick of rain and gloomy days, I could scream. In fact, during the last downpour I DID scream, and something deep in the woods answered me. So, fearing I had accidentally mimicked some unsavory critter’s mating call, I have since refrained from that practice. Nevertheless, what a nasty Spring we’ve had! There has been so much water, the only thing my butterfly garden has attracted is fish! All my plants are tall and green, but there is no flowering to speak of. And, I still haven’t cleared all the residual leaf litter because it is too wet and heavy to move. Which brings me to the good news/bad news scenario. Or, as one of my daughters puts it, “Every silver lining starts with a cloud, Mom!

In mathematical terms,
DeadLeaves (squared) + LotsOfRain (cubed) - Sun = BUGS (to infinity and beyond) = BirdFood

This is a paradox of Mother Nature, of whom I am a huge fan. On the one hand, every time I step outside, I am attacked by kamikaze hoards of vicious, blood-sucking, unrelenting insects. Oh, don’t be fooled by their size. They are the fodder of horror films, and there is not enough bug repellent in Rockland County to keep them at bay! And how, pray tell, do they manage to bite me (through multiple layers of clothing, no less) on the very places I cannot reach?

On the other hand (here’s the good news part), whenever I do rake away a bunch of leaves, I uncover an abundant stash of Aggravatus Insectus, and I am quickly rewarded with multitudes of voracious birds. I am so in awe of their intelligence and networking skills. As soon as one little guy discovers the newly created feast, he is quickly joined by dozens of his closest friends. Verizon should have such a good communications system! Friends, Family and Flocks indeed! And because of the plentitude of bugs, there have been more birds on Mothering Heights this year than the last ten combined.

So, I put up with the annoyance in order to relish the enjoyment. The Optimist in me says the glass is half full, the Pessimist that it’s half empty. But as the humidity increases and I once again listen to the rumble of thunder in the distance, and the crack of lighting hitting yet another tree limb, the Realist in me decides that it doesn’t much matter when the glass is leaking!