Hazel and Nutmeg - Episode Three by Saralee Sky

Slide-A-Tree

Hazel and Nutmeg lived in a cozy nest in a hollow area high in the big oak tree in the Big Backyard of the Man and the Woman and the Little Girl and the Baby Boy and the Dog and the Cat. Hazel was a black squirrel with a big bushy tail. She was the big sister of Nutmeg. Nutmeg was a gray squirrel (with a big bushy tail) and Hazel’s little brother. Hazel and Nutmeg lived with their mother, Mama Squirrel, and their father, Papa Squirrel.

On this day Hazel and Nutmeg were playing together all along the branches of the big oak tree. They would race to the very end of a branch then leap to the next one until they reached the tiniest branches at the very edge of the tree. Then they would leap onto the branches of the maple tree and do the very same thing. They could go from tree to tree in the Big Back Yard without ever having to touch the ground. It was great fun.

Nutmeg had a hard time keeping up with his big sister Hazel. She could run so fast it almost seemed as though she were flying. And she did this using only three of her little legs. For you see, in her right front paw she held tightly to Silky, a little doll Papa Squirrel had made for her out of corn husks and corn silk. Silky went everywhere with Hazel.

Hazel raced to the end of a maple branch and tried to leap to the tip of a blue spruce limb. With only three legs to grip with, this time she missed her landing and began to slide down the spruce needles. At first she was really scared, but as she continued to slide from branch to branch – cushioned by the spruce needles – she realized she had just invented a brand new game! She landed with a splash on the ground in a pile of oak and maple leaves.

“Wow! That was fun!” she exclaimed.

“Hazel! Where ARE you?” Nutmeg called. He was still high in the branches of the maple tree.

“I’m down here, Nutmeg, on the ground,” answered Hazel. She scampered up the trunk of the maple tree, over the large lower branches and out to the place where Nutmeg sat waiting for her.

“I just made up a new game, Nutmeg. It’s called Slide-A-Tree! Want to try it?” Hazel asked. Without waiting for a response, she raced to the end of the maple tree branch with Nutmeg close behind, and Silky clasped firmly in her right front paw.

Hazel leaped onto the blue spruce and began to slide and tumble down its branches again, this time knowing that she would end up at the bottom of the tree in the soft pile of leaves. Nutmeg was right behind her. Anything Hazel could do, he was willing to try. If he couldn’t do it the first time he would try and try again until he mastered it. This time he was able to slide and tumble along after her - though with more tumbling and less sliding - until he, too, landed in the soft pile of leaves on the ground.

Hazel and Nutmeg spent the next hour playing Slide-A-Tree again and again. As she sat in the pile of leaves after a particularly tumbly slide, Hazel looked around and said, “Where is Silky?” She was no longer tucked safely in her right front paw. “Oh no, I’ve lost Silky!” She began to run here and there, searching among the fallen leaves.

Nutmeg was still up in the maple tree about to leap onto the spruce tree. He didn’t hear Hazel. He was finally getting sort of good at Slide-A-Tree. He made his leap and began to tumble and slide down the spruce branches. A few branches down – though still a long way from the ground – Nutmeg spied something sticking out of the needles of a branch as he slid by. He tried to stop his slide by grabbing hold of the branch beneath the needles. Finally his paws caught the branch and he was able to climb back up to the object he spied. It was Silky!

He retrieved her and tucked her carefully in his right paw, just as he’d seen Hazel do countless times. “OK,” he said to himself. “I can do this.” His little face looking serious and determined, he let go of the branch and allowed himself to start sliding and tumbling toward the ground. It was a lot harder without his right front paw to help keep his balance. He ended up sliding mostly on his back, landing in a big blustery heap in the pile of leaves.

Hazel was still running back and forth looking for Silky. “Look, Hazel, I found Silky,” said Nutmeg, emerging from the heap of leaves, Silky held high in his right paw.

“Oh Silky, I was so worried!” said Hazel grabbing her out of Nutmeg’s paw and hugging her tightly. “Thank you, Nutmeg. You are a good little brother.”

“You’re welcome, Hazel,” said Nutmeg. ” I guess Slide-A-Tree isn’t Silky’s favorite game.”

Saralee Sky is the creator and co-owner of Babynut - an online store featuring natural products for mother and baby, and free online newsletter, Nutsense.

Hazel and Nutmeg - Episode Two - by Saralee Sky

The Bird Feeder

Hazel and Nutmeg lived in a cozy nest in a hollow area high in the big oak tree in the Big Backyard of the Man and the Woman and the Little Girl and the Baby Boy and the Dog and the Cat. Hazel was a black squirrel with a big bushy tail. She was the big sister of Nutmeg. Nutmeg was a gray squirrel (with a big bushy tail) and Hazel’s little brother. Hazel and Nutmeg lived with their mother, Mama Squirrel, and their father, Papa Squirrel.

All of the squirrels would stop from time to time for a snack at the Big Black Bucket on the Back Porch of the House, where the Woman put black sunflower seeds out for them to eat.

Hazel didn’t like eating from the Bucket. She liked eating from the Bird Feeder that hung from the roof of the Back Porch. She would grasp the wooden support from which the Feeder hung with her back legs, then stretch out as far as she could upside down. She could just reach the seeds in the Feeder. They were the same black sunflower seeds that were in the Big Black Bucket. But Hazel liked a challenge.

Mama and Papa squirrel had tried to warn her that she might hurt herself doing this. Or even worse, the Cat or the Dog might catch her while she was hanging upside down. But Hazel still preferred the seeds in the Bird Feeder. They tasted better, she was sure.

On this morning Hazel stopped for a bite to eat from the Bird Feeder on her way to the walnut trees to gather walnuts. Percy and Peachy were there, sitting in the branches of the big, old wisteria vine which wound over and under the porch railing across from the feeder.

“Good morning, good morning!” trilled Peachy.

“Be careful, be careful!” warned Percy. “You’ll fall on your head!” Percy and Peachy were House Finches, and Percy had a lovely peach colored head and chest. Their nest was in the same oak tree as Hazel’s family.

“No I won’t,” said Hazel confidently. “I do this all the time!”

“We know, we know!” said Peachy. “How’s the nut collecting going?”

“Good. We got lots already,” Hazel said, sitting upright on the wooden support to eat her seeds. “But Mama says we can’t eat them yet ‘cause they’re not ripe.”

“Well,” said Percy, “You can always fill up on sunflower seeds!”

Hazel gripped the wooden support with her back legs again and stretched her body as far as she could to reach for more seeds from the Bird Feeder. Just then the sounds of scampering feet could be heard. Little Nutmeg went racing by below the bird feeder and leaped into the tangle of wisteria vines. Close on his heels was The Dog, Bisbee the Golden Retriever, wagging her tail and barking.

Peachy and Percy went flying up in the air to safety in the branches of the nearby beech tree. But Hazel was upside down and the sudden noise startled her. She tumbled head over heels off the wooden support and landed in the Big Black Bucket. Bisbee swung away from the wisteria vine and started barking at Hazel in the Bucket.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” trilled Peachy.

“Go away, go away, go away!” scolded Percy. Both remained safely out of reach in the beech tree.

“Over here, over here, you big silly Dog!” called Nutmeg. He scampered about in the wisteria vines just out of reach. “Bet you can’t catch me!”

Bisbee turned back toward the wisteria vines for just a moment, but it was long enough for Hazel to leap out of the Big Black Bucket and scamper across the porch to safety among the wisteria vines herself.

“Whew! That was a close one!” Hazel said as she and Nutmeg raced through the vines, up the beech tree trunk and into its branches.

“I’ll say!” said Nutmeg. “Lucky thing I was there to save you!”

“Silly Nutmeg! If you hadn’t been chased by The Dog I wouldn’t have tumbled into the Bucket!”

“Oh,” said Nutmeg.

Saralee Sky is the owner of Babynut.