The circle of (garden) life

The circle of (garden) life

The garden is my husband’s refuge. When he’s not at work there are few things he enjoys more than planting seeds and nurturing them into edible beans, tomatoes, corn, spinach, eggplant; sweat dripping, hands immersed in rich Adelaide foothills soil, left in peace.

So I was surprised when one evening, a couple of months ago, he left the garden to eat dinner and snapped at me for no apparent reason. “You’re irritable,” I said.

“You want to know why?” he retorted. “My lizard died.”

Blue tongue lizards are one of Australia’s favourite backyard buddies, and it turns out my husband had quietly enjoyed the companionship of one who called our garden home.

Today my puppy was inquisitively checking something out by our back door, which had stopped her in her tracks. I walked over and saw a lizard basking in the sun, lazily flicking her bright blue tongue. She was pregnant.

Published in the New York Times (Australia Diary).

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