Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Hide nor Hare: Word Counters

 

Blackberry Lemonade Fizz, a refreshing cocktail for a hot summer day | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cocktail

 

Counting my words again. 

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month one group member picks  a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we all share what we came up with. 

 This month's number is 43
It was chosen by Diane of On the Border.

As I've been doing in these Word Counters posts, I've chosen a theme and am using my word count multiple times in keeping with the theme. This month I've chosen the theme Missing (i.e., where have all the rabbits gone?).
 
~ I write, each year at this time, about nature, what we see in our yard. I talk about the flowers that grow in my gardens, the trees along the wood line, and the critters (large and small, scary and interesting) who wander about.
 
~ I've written about woodpeckers pecking holes in our siding, costing us hundreds of dollars in repairs each year. I've written about the majestic hawks who come right up and sit on our deck. And the owls who perch on our roofline to hunt.

~ Turkeys who come to visit, sometimes right up to our door. There are geese, deer and fawns, moles who do their own damage, but to our lawn, a fox now and then, possums, moles, raccoons, and the pedestrian rabbits, spiders, squirrels, bees, flies . . .

~ Today, some are missing. I'm not sure why. I went to sit on the back deck today, looked down to see a spider crawling on my leg, decided my three seconds outdoors were enough and came back in. Nope, spiders aren't missing. Figures.

~ My giant bees are. First time I saw them, I ran, screaming. Eventually they'd buzz around me while watering my plants, then follow me on to the next pot. We'd meet daily, they were harmless, friendly even. We got used to each other.

~ Yes, I've been drinking. But that doesn't change the fact that after years of expecting to see them, this year I'm watering alone. Of course the smaller yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets, you know, the ones that sting, they're still around. Of course.
 


Blackberry Lemonade Fizz, a refreshing cocktail for a hot summer day | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #cocktail

Blackberry Lemonade Fizz


~ The strangest thing is the rabbits. Normally, they're everywhere, like the squirrels. We see them all over the lawn, from large rabbits, to tiny babies in nests dug into holes in our lawn, to young ones, scurrying away when we open the door.

~ Rabbits are everywhere in spring. There's a reason they say "breed like rabbits." This spring, we saw none. The woods, the lawn, the gardens, neither hide nor hare. The hares were hiding. Didn't see our first bunny until July, we've seen five since. 

~ We heard of a coyote out back this spring. Supposedly it went after a neighbor, but he (the neighbor, not the coyote) still has all of his body parts (the ones we can see), so he's superman, or that story may be exaggerated. 
 
~ I can see you making the correlation, enter the coyote, exit the rabbits, making a Sherlock Holmes style deduction, that the coyote ate all the rabbits. But every single one? Skipping the squirrels (and the spiders, but they're probably not quite as filling).

~ So where did all the rabbits go? The giant bees, too. And while I'm asking questions, anyone know how to talk a coyote into eating spiders (without getting close to him . . . just in case I happen to look like a roadrunner). Meep meep.


Word Counters, a monthly multiblogger writing challenge | run by and graphic property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #bloggingchallenge #MyGraphics

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:



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Blackberry Lemonade Fizz  
                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 3):
12 blackberries
1 bottle (12 oz) hard lemonade
4 oz vodka
8 oz blackberry lemonade sparkling water 
 
1 cup ice

OPT: blackberries and/or sliced lemon to garnish

Directions:
*In a pitcher, mix together the lemonade and vodka. Add the blackberries and refrigerate for 4 hours.
*Divide the ice into 3 (10 - 12 oz) cocktail glasses. Remove the pitcher from the refrigerator, scoop out the blackberries and add 4 to each glass. 
*Divide the hard lemonade mixture evenly into the 3 glasses. Fill the glasses the rest of the way with the sparkling water. 
*Garnish with blackberries and/or sliced lemon, if desired.


14 comments:

  1. that fizz looks so refreshing! My hubby loves blueberries, i'm going to make him one today!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure it'll be delicious with blueberries as well. Enjoy!

      Delete
  2. Yep. There's a reason rabbits proliferate, being so near the bottom of the food chain. One coyote can decimate the numbers--especially if there are babies somewhere in the equation. But that sounds like a scary decrease. Like someone, somewhere is trapping them. Or they are being poisoned?
    Or maybe dad got a better job offer and the whole fam damily (quoting my dad) moved en masse?
    My dog eats spiders. I could loan her out...

    ReplyDelete
  3. We haven't had as many bees, either, and the butterflies are getting scarce. It's a bit scary.

    A friend told her sister there was a mouse in the house, and the sister responded with, "You have mice. There are no little mousey priests taking vows of celibacy. If you have one, you have a family and soon will have more."

    The same is true of your coyote. Even if only one has been spotted in the area so far, that doesn't mean there's only one, and coyotes will make the rabbits disappear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't thught that there may be more coyotes, that's more than a bit scary.

      Delete
  4. Coyotes aren't going away any time soon. Yesterday I came in on the middle of a radio interview where they talked about this story-https://phys.org/news/2022-08-coyotes-north-american-cities-distance.html.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are all really scaring me, I may never go out into my back yard again.

      Delete
  5. I'll tell you exactly where your rabbits are. They are in my yard. And they are fearless. I found one in my flowers Sunday and it stared at me like "what are you doing here?" Well, what I am doing here is living and trying to grow flowers. What about you? I wanted to ask. Oh, they are also in our community garden.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That fizz looks really refreshing. The word count concept is really helpful for creativity - great idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the word count (and all of the challenges I run) are an added dimension to writing, and they're fun.

      Delete
  7. You have so many different kinds of animals around you. We don't have anything like that here. The drink sounds good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have woods in our back yard, you've got Las Vegas in yours!

      Delete

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