Where’s the Camel?

With all that manure around here, there has to be a camel somewhere!

Or was that a pony? Remember that story? Here it is which I lifted from fellow blogger, Judy Minz, who, to quote from her blog post was, “Stolen shamelessly from some random website with the assumption that retelling a joke is as fairuse as it gets.”

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Worried that their son was too optimistic, the parents of a little boy took him to a psychiatrist. In an attempt to dampen the boy’s spirits, the psychiatrist showed him into a room piled high with nothing but horse manure. Instead of displaying distaste, the little boy clambered to the top of the pile and began digging.

“What are you doing?” the psychiatrist asked.

“With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere.”

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I was so excited about moving the pile of camel dung that I never told you, dear reader, what the hell it was doing on Cathy’s front porch in the first place.

Why, it’s for her garden in Corralitos, of course. Yes, I know, it’s October, summer is over, people are harvesting their final crop of tomatoes and zuccini, and battening down the hatches for California’s rainy season.

The owner of the camel, who lives on a forty-acre ranch in Los Gatos, just got around to filling Cathy’s order for a load of fertilizer which she had placed several months ago. If she covers it with a tarp, it should be ready for planting season next spring.

It wasn’t until I got an email from one of my TIA fly-sisters asking me why this woman has a camel in her backyard, or why does she have camel dung delivered, that realized I left out a crucial part of the story. My friend, Linda, after reading the blog, said although she enjoyed it, she was totally confused. She wrote, “Do tell, as I was walking away shaking my head. Was this in Saudi or Santa Cruz?”

I chuckled as I realized she was absolutely right! How would anyone know, outside of the circle of friends who know Cathy, and know she has cultivated an extraodinary garden in her sunny corner of Santa Cruz county?

Lucky me to have been the recipient of some fabulous veggies, as she has shared her abundance—and this without benefit of camel dung. I can only imagine next year’s crop once she spreads the nutrient-rich fertilizer on her already healthy soil.

Now to add to my bucket list quest—ride the camel. I Googled camel rides and thought I had found a local zoo that offered camel rides, but no, it was located in Missouri. I might as well go to Egypt.

Meanwhile, it’s back to my favorite shelter-in-place activities—Netflix and needlepoint. I’ll keep the camel ride on my bucket list and maybe watch a rerun of Lawrence of Arabia.