I have to confess, I accepted this fabulous gift with some trepidation. A 120-year-old cupola, a bit decrepit, and so heavy it took a front-end loader to get it onto the trailer we brought it home on. But I had in mind a place for it; I planned to use it as an anchoring point for the garden that sits halfway between the kitchen window and the vegetable garden. Even more important, it would become, I hoped, a bat condo. We’re getting overrun with mosquitoes. We have bats, but not enough apparently. I love to sit outside on summer evenings. But given that there is no screened-in porch and too many mosquitoes, my desire is incompatible with current reality. Enter ecology. I hope.
“Aren’t you afraid the bats we have in the attic will stay there and invite more friends to live in the cupola?” asked my son, who set the cupola in place.
Matt’s an inimitable bat-bouncer. When he lived at home, I could call on him to take care of the occasional in-house bat. He takes sieve and cookie sheet, waits until the bat lights, then immediately slaps the sieve over the bat, slides the cookie sheet beneath, and ushers the creature outside unharmed. Bats, who follow spore trails to find their nesting places, are also curious and can slide into the most amazingly tight places – I once watched one slide up under an asbestos shingle in our old house.
The cupola laid on its side partially wrapped in a tarp, all winter. I worried about it becoming an eyesore and unfinished project. But for my birthday, Matt and Gary set it up on the foundation Matt built. Several days ago, Matt painted it with solid stain. I love it. Whether or not this very cool garden ornament will also serve as a growing bat population’s summer house remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I just enjoy looking at it as a plant the beans.
*For anyone interested, I know where you can get another reasonably priced antique cupola for your garden. Just let me know via a comment on this blog
