MEET CHARLIE

I've been away from blogging over the summer. Many of you can understand why.  There is summer mowing, weeding, traveling and . . . .well . . . you know all the excuses.  Let me just add that I was also making some new friends. I wish I could let you meet them all but I ask you to be satisfied with just this one.

Meet Charlie.

                              Charlie is a little bit shy

but not too much

Like me, Charlie likes to spend time in my garden.  For her it is a jungle of greenery that provides great cover. Like me, she understands how within the garden she may find protection from the outside world.

Like me she likes it best right with a thick blanket of mulch tucked in around the plants.

Mulch is so easy to tunnel into.

Beneath the ground stays moist.  It makes a great place to snuggle on a sunny day.

But there is also work to be done.  Charlie spends much of her life gathering food. Once I have started feeding the birds I am also feeding Charlie.

            She particularly likes black oil sunflower seeds.

She spends several mornings scurrying up and down the feeder pole

or filling her jaws as she forages through the grass

Soon, her chipmunk cheeks will be swollen to capacity and it will be time to take all those seeds back to her home for storage.

Without her tail as a balancing rudder I am afraid she would topple forward.

Time in the open is dangerous. Charlie studies the distance then darts off  at full speed.

She slips under the garden fence and returns to the jungle

 to transfer her harvest from her cheeks.

 Then its back to the feeder to forage.

After some exploring Charlene found some seeds I had spilled around the can in which they are stored. 

This time she ate what she found.  With her stomach full her activity slowed.  You know the feeling, don’t you?  I know I do. So full. So tired. Arms heavy.  Hard to move  . . . eye lids getting very heavy . . . so-o-o-o . . . grhghgghrrr.

Every nap must end and there is nothing better to get Charlie awake than a nice bath.

Have to get all those hard-to-reach places

Even elbows

and between each finger

Once she feels totally clean it is back across the yard, under the fence and back into my (her) garden.