Tuesday

Garden Nemesis (aka Eastern Cottontail Rabbit)


Garden Nemesis, Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, painting, oil on panel, artist Shannon Reynolds © 2016
Garden Nemesis (aka Easter Cottontail Rabbit), oil on panel, 12" x 12"
Every Fall, in an ritualistic bid to ensure the return of Spring, I plant tulip bulbs--gorgeous extravagant bulbs: parrots, fringed, sword tipped, black as night, streaked with sherbet colours, bulbs that would've required a second mortgage in the 17th century--bulbs that take a backyard rabbit about 30 seconds to eat from stem to tip. 

painting detail Eastern Cottontail Rabbit artist Shannon Reynolds
Garden Nemesis (detail)
My yard seems to be a rabbit paradise.  I have at least one healthy breeding pair, and lots of quickly growing babies.  My garden is their all-you-can-eat-buffet.  Though I'd probably never have the heart, nor the wherewithal, to do what author Jeanette Winterson did with her rabbits, I'm empathizing with Mr. McGregor, and dreaming of eating rabbit pie and becoming a falconer. 
A girl can dream, right?