November 16th, 2021

Do you remember this post from a few weeks past?  If you missed that one or (much like me) have long forgotten it I will nutshell the story for you.

I had - note the past tense- a tiny little  English china pitcher in cream and blue that I adored.  I had owned it for a very long time but never really had a use for it other than sitting it on a shelf and admiring how dang cute it was.  And then, a year or so ago, I found this very cool rock that had a shallow depression on the top of it that I decided to use as a water bowl for very tiny things that live or visit our courtyard.  Things like bees and butterflies and lizards.  Over time and through various sorts of experimentation I found that that itty bitty 2 inch high pitcher was a perfect vehicle for getting the water into the water "bowl".  

However, I developed the very bad habit of leaving the little pitcher outside during the day to refill that little water bowl. I would bring it in at night and then take it back out in the morning for the first fill.  Then one sunny Wednesday afternoon when I returned for a Photo Safari with Joy, I noticed that the pitcher was gone. Just no longer there which was Very Odd.  I looked both high and low for it.  And it was during the "low" part of the search that I found those few eensy shards of china on the ground. Someone had broken the pitcher and then spirited away most of the wreckage.  But who?  That was the mystery.

Well, I believe that  Tim solved the mystery!!!

I know that I have revealed before that we have a lawn service to take care of our yard.  Neither Tim nor I really had any interest in mowing, weed whacking, pruning, leaf blowing and all of the other stuff that need to be done on a regular basis.  With Tim it's more a lack of time than interest to be fair.  I don't mind doing a little bit of pruning when the mood strikes me but things grow here. They grow a lot, quickly and constantly. So to keep the yard looking nice, it needs to be maintained more often than my whims dictate.  So, we did not buy a new lawn mower and instead hired a service.  

They are really nice guys and they do a good job.  They visit every week, usually on Wednesday afternoon and almost always when Tim is on a phone call.  Murphy's Law, right?    They not only take care of the mowing and shaping of shrubbery, they also haul away any deadfall that I stack up in a pile at the side of the house.  They keep the strangely prolific purple flowers that grow across the back of the yard against the fence at bay (otherwise they will take over the world), they handle the weeds and spray for insects.  Awesome.  One of the other, random things that they do every week is use the leaf blower on, not just the driveway but also the courtyard.  

The courtyard which has furniture and  my potted garden and the rock which doubles as a tiny water bowl AND the tiny pitcher.  

Ahhhhhh.  The puzzles pieces are coming together now.   Last Wednesday when the tiny pitcher went missing was a lawn service day.  They are almost always here and gone by the time I return from my hike so honestly, they weren't even on my radar when I was trying to figure out, who on earth might have been here, accidentally (I'm positive) broke the pitcher and then, the weirdest part, cleaned it up!

As Tim and I were discussing the mysteriously broken and missing pitcher situation, he had the revelation!  The lawn guys!  Betcha betcha.

I hold no grudges.  I am not angry with anyone.  It honestly was more my fault than anyone's because I am the one who foolishly left a breakable pitcher outside.  But I was a little sad about no longer having that cutiecute little pitcher that I had owned for so long.

But hey, I'm a grown up.  I will build a bridge and get over it.  That was my plan.

And then a few days later a package arrived in the mail.  Not an unusual thing.  We frequently get packages in the mail or via UPS or Fed Ex.  Most of them stuff for Tim (I don't do a lot of online shopping). So when I brought in the package I left it for Tim to open at his leisure.  

At the end of the day  he handed it to me.  For me?  That's always exciting!  I opened it up and inside I found:

Isn't that just the sweetest little thing ever?   It's not the same as my old pitcher but it is beautiful and small and perfect for watering the tiny water dish and I love it!  More than anything I love it because Tim thought to buy it for me. Without me saying so, he knew how much I loved that foolish little pitcher that I had, and was kind enough, thoughtful enough to replace it.  An absolutely lovely thing to do.  Tim really is a much nicer person than I am. I am a lucky lucky girl. 

Tim Humphreys. Hero of the day!