Squirrels

When I looked out my window yesterday morning, I saw a squirrel in my back yard. I watched it as it leaped through the grass straight to my compost heap. It took a piece of hotdog bun I had thrown there the night before. It took it across the lawn, then up to the top of the fence, where I watched it nibble it, turning the bread round and round.

Later, I took the kids on a bike ride. We stopped at a park for lunch. We had a picnic of some wonderful French Morbier cheese, crusty bread, apples, and cumquats. The girls ate some, then went to play. I moved to a park bench to watch them. Apparently, we left a couple apples on the picnic table. I glanced over just as a squirrel picked a whole apple up in its mouth and went bounding away with it. There was another squirrel attempting to do the same with the other apple. I scared the squirrel as I advanced on the apple. There were a couple squirrel bites out of it, so I tossed it at the squirrel, who ran after it like a dog playing fetch. It grabbed the apple and kept running.

I've never seen a squirrel eat anything other than nuts, so this was interesting to me.

As a side note, cumquats are my new favorite fruit. I'd never had them before, but they are sooo good. The first one was surprising, as I didn't expect the acute sourness of the fruit. Being an orange colored fruit, I expected the sweet flavor of an orange. Instead, I was surprised by the sour flavor of a lemon or lime, which I like, too. I like the bitterness of the skin, mixed with the sour flavor. I think, because of the skin, it doesn't affect my teeth as much as eating a lemon or lime does.