Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A Squirrel and Stephen Harper


I currently have two pet peeves in my life, the squirrel that keeps stealing plants from my garden and Stephen Harper's "Use it or Lose it" philosophy. I can't be too upset with the squirrel because it is just following its primitive urge to store food for the winter, Stephen Harper has no excuse. The Conservative government announced today that they are going to "geo-map" Arctic resources. There is gold, gas, oil and diamonds just waiting to bring Canadians bounty or as Harper says: "Canada's share of this incredible endowment will fuel the prosperity of our country for generations". I wonder if Mr. Harper has his head under some big rock somewhere. Generations? Why not spend 100 million dollars on something that will really last generations...sustainable energy, technologies for the future, or cutting green house emissions? While local government officials in the Arctic welcome the idea of development I am very skeptical that these resources can be removed in a sensitive environmental manner. Eco-systems are so fragile. Do we really need more diamonds to add to the stockpile that already exists? Diamonds are not even rare they are horded to make their value stay high. The only reason that we are rushing to do this is to quell the political debate over ownership of the north. Or as our government so lovingly refers to it "sovereignty". Here is the full article I read on this announcement. Hearing about this today really set me onto a negative path. The current government really has no mandate that I can relate to. It really makes you want to yell at the t.v or computer screen...(which I did and my son gave me a funny look and he's only 8 months old).

My other issue is one that I'm trying to evolve my thinking with. I love my little garden. It has been my spring/summer project this year. I will post a more detailed write-up about it in the future. I have tried really hard to make it interesting and fun. I planted it with the intent of making a Fairy Garden, which I did do to some extent, but I planted other plants that don't specifically appeal to the fey. One of the none specific plants is a very hardy and plentiful Hen & Chicks succulent. I've had the Hen for years now, and this plant has grown from one small pot to two and I bordered my garden with them this year. For some reason a black squirrel living here loves to pull the chicks out of my garden and take them to his home. As a pagan I am trying to go with nature on this one. The squirrel is only fulfilling his primitive urge to store food. Who am I to deny his survival this winter?
But my pride says: hey squirrel those are mine! I planted them with love and have watered them in dry weather, I've moved three times carrying them with me. Leave them alone. I have thought of only one solution to this problem, leave something for the squirrel that is more appealing than my chicks...chestnuts? breadcrumbs? apples? I have no idea what he'd like more. And to be honest leaving anything else might attract more attention so I have to resign myself to sacrifice my chicks. Farewell.

1 comment:

KrisMrsBBradley said...

First off, I left something on my blog for you :O)

Secondly, on the squirrel thing - if you leave out food, you are likely to get a ton more squirrels visiting. Our solution to this problem was to put out bread crumbs and a few veggie/fruit scraps, but on the opposite side of the house than the garden. Seems to keep them out of everything.