Tick- eating Vietmamese Pygmy Possums

My wandering brother William Bonaparte Warren seems to be in California still, as he sent me this pair of "Vietnamese Pygmy Possums" which are supposed to eat ticks like crazy, and to tolerate chickens, well .... but the chickens are not too accepting of THEM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHeCyPTq8Dk&feature=youtu.be

Quick Look Around Dog's Plot in Cherry-Plum Blossom Time:

Whether there are going to be any cherry plums, and whether they be
small on fruit and big on pits, or otherwise....no bird knows.

Still Life with Blizzard

Two inches of snow in ten minutes, and twenty minutes later; it was like
magic. The snow was gone! The pear blossoms are still there and they
have been unharmed by the freezing nights, but , while sitting in my
cherry plum tree, I haven't seen more than a few native bees , and,
though there are hives up the road, only ONE domestic honey bee, Even
the cats and chickens are sleeping most of the time. The peas are
ducking their little heads. Should I  nap before breakfast?
Afterwards, I think. And even with it this old, when the sun
shines bright, I like to get out in the afternoon and just lay there by
the Juniper.

pear fest 2020

All that white bloom is on pear trees, a foreign invasive species, for which you can  thank the French Jesuit missionaries who had missions near here well before the English presence.  The English brought the cattle.  These; black Herferds. No, not Angus.  Black Herferds.