what more do I need?

I think our yard is a wildlife highway. Not as much as it was before taking out our gorgeous wonderful beautiful redwood trees. We asked our neighbors, several years ago, if they minded the redwoods, and they said no, they loved the shade. Not long after, I found a man up in our redwood trees, chopping off branches. Come to find out the neighbor had hired him to cut the branches hanging in his yard. 

I'm bad about this, but I didn't report him, or anything. I think I could have sued my neighbor or something. The tree went downhill after that, some of it turned brown, and it seemed like it was leaning. Then we had a severe rain year, and that poor tree was lopsided and started pulling out. Then that neighbor showed up at our house at 10:00 pm and told us that the tree was going to fall on their house, we needed to get it taken out. We couldn't take out just ONE tree, they were all intertwined. So my forest turned into blankness. I'm still sad about that. It's one reason I agreed to move here almost 20 years ago, there was a mini forest in the back yard. 

So they took them out. I left home that day, I couldn't stand to see my beloved trees cut down but didn't feel like there was a choice. Truthfully, they took up a third of the yard, and sheltered things like possums and raccoons. And rats. When they cut it down, they said at least a dozen rats ran out of the roots. None ended up in OUR house; who knows where the critters went.

Sometimes I just miss the trees intensely. Like today, there's nothing I'd rather do than go sit and read a book under those trees, to hear birds and squirrels hanging out there and feel the breeze. 

And to add insult to injury this morning, I found out why I haven't gotten too many tomatoes, there were several I had been watching for the last few days, and some were gone and others were half eaten. If I was getting lots of them I wouldn't care, but they were the only ripe ones. Birds or rats? Don't know. 

I remember once when we lived up the hill and were trying to figure out who was eating the cat food. We spread around white paper on the porch and guess what, we got some good racoon prints. I wish I had some of that huge roll of paper now, I'd put it out. I didn't see any rodent prints this morning, but plenty of birds. So I'm suspecting the birds.

See any tomatoes?? Me either. But the sky is blue and not smoky and it's only 88 degrees outside, just right for being outside. And I have my lawn swing clear, good for napping or just sitting and thinking, and there's water coming out of the tap, and the roof doesn't leak, and we can get tomatoes at the store, and zucchini, and whatever else didn't grow well in my garden... and there's plenty of paint in the craft room, and card stock, and mini canvasses, and paint brushes... 

what more do I need?