The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Summer arrives, and the days become hot, though they’re punctuated by occasional thunderstorms. Renkl stands outside, feeling “the pulse of the world” (134). The birdsong sounds like summer.

In “Praise Song for the Skink Who Has Gone to Ground,” Renkl recalls watching a video of a man on YouTube. The man pulled back a rock to reveal a sleeping skink. Rather than worrying about the man, Renkl remembers worrying that the skink was alive and well. She wants proof that the “skink is safe” (135).

Renkl continues to construct the stock-tank pond for her yard, hoping that it will attract frogs. She buries the tank and plants native flowers in the nearby soil. Despite her efforts to attract frogs, however, the frogs seem to prefer the “poisoned yards of [her] neighbors” (137). She laments the use of pesticides and poisons, so she continues to work on constructing a natural pond. Haywood helps, and when he takes a trip to the pond-supply store, the sales assistant offers him tadpoles. Renkl returns to the store with him, and they bring the tadpoles home. The tadpoles become the “perfect thirty-fourth anniversary present” (139). They release the tadpoles into the pond, and Renkl is eager to see them grow.