Poor Mother Nature

Right after Christmas, we went "garage saling" one morning. At one woman's home we decided she was ill & was moving with family or to a long-term care facility. She was inside her home pricing the items still and didn't want to part with many of her belongings. She was overpriced and explained the value of her items to customers. As we were leaving, I noticed a fern on her front porch. It was full, green & well-fed. I asked her how much and her friend said people had been asking all morning but the woman would never answer them. She asked me how much I would give for it and I said $5. She said ok and explained how I should care for the fern. She followed me to the car and continued to tell me about the plant. I told her I could do all the things she told me. I thought she wanted to hug me or the fern, but she didn't. Sweet, sweet lady...

I have cared for the fern as the lady told me to. When it was cold outside, I brought it inside to stay warm. When it was thirsty, I watered it. I even moved it to a better location on our front porch and it is doing incredibly better! My main goal has been to take care of the fern hoping the lady would be proud of me.

Fast forward 4 months to today.

I was pruning out the dead "stuff" and working on showing off the new growth that is emerging from the beautiful fern. I had a great idea to turn the hanging planter upside down and shake out the old stuff from the middle. A little bird was watching me down the sidewalk and hopped away as I came down to the front yard. I turned the fern over and shook, shook, shook. Wow, there was a lot of brown, dead stuff from the middle of the plant. I flipped the pot back over and started picking out some other brown stuff when lo, and behold I noticed a perfect, tiny bird's nest EMPTY in the top of the fern. Oh no! Where there any eggs?? I searched the grass and found one egg unharmed. I put the egg back in the nest and searched some more. I only found one egg. I hung the plant back up and felt so guilty. The little bird I noticed before was watching me. "Sorry little bird if I lost your egg. I hope your baby bird hatches. If you see the lady who sold me the fern, tell her I'm keeping it well."