Is Your Workplace an Inspiration or Distraction

While waiting for hubby, I stood at the tall window and looked out at the shrub garden. I miss using this office, I told Marv. I know I said it was too distracting. I spent more time watching the critters rooting through the mulch than I did writing fiction.

Do you ever notice them, I asked. He grunted and continued the two-finger pecking on his laptop.

Bunnies would stand on their hind legs eating the branches off the Burning Bush right before my eyes. Brazen as anything. It’s funny how that little boulder got so much attention. Even from the birds. They used it as a landing pad. I grinned, remembering. Mice and squirrels would sun themselves on it. Well, look at that. Right on cue. I laughed at a chipmunk appearing from beneath the Colorado spruce. He scampered up the side of the smooth round rock, settled himself, and began grooming. I continued with a play by play for my husband’s sake.

So he made it through the winter, Marv said. I wondered aloud if his mate did. We’ll know soon enough, he said. I continued watching. I miss this office, I told him again, as the chipmunk leaped off the rock. I followed his movements until he disappeared home. He lives under the front steps, I said.

I turned my attention to the birds. Far too many to count. They flew and flitted from bush to tree, branch to branch in a hectic search for the perfect nesting spot. So many birds passing each other in flight. The sound of their chirping was muffled but I could still hear them. Such excited chatter.

Look at that robin. She is fat, fat! And with all the activity in and out of the spruce, I think it will be an apartment complex again this year.

I believe the cardinals have found a spot in the climbing hydrangea. Remember when the doves nested there? For a few years and then they were gone. Marv’s answer was more of an urgent request to me. I couldn’t hear what he said, but I surmised he was trying to concentrate on something. I know what you mean, I told him. It’s like I said before, the office is far too distracting to get anything accomplished.