Sandra and the Backyard Revolution Chapter 1

Moving to Brooklyn

Once upon a time there were three bunnies who had a happy life in the country. We were all indoor bunnies, two girls and one boy. My name is Sandra and then there are Bella and Boxer. I am light brown, Bella is black and Boxer is white. We all lived with a lady named Bibi and we had playtime in the garden every day except in wintertime.

We met all the bugs you could ever want to meet in the garden. Big ones, little ones, flying ones, green ones, black ones, almost invisible ones, ones with hundreds of legs and the kind that sting the people and make them itch like bumble bees and carpenter bees and wasps.

Lightning bugs danced around the sky in June and other bugs sang for us at night all summer long.

Then there were the worms. All the worms we ever met in the country were big, fat and happy. They had big families because there was always so much for them to eat. You could find worms to say hello to every day in the soil and in the compost pile. Rotten food is their most favorite thing ever.

Almost. There’s one more thing they love that I will tell you about later.

There was a person who took care of the garden and that was Farmer George. He grew every single thing for us like celery, carrots, arugula, lettuce, radiccio, spinach, raspberries, mustard greens, beets, parsley, cilantro, asparagus, string beans, kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, dill, brussels sprouts and basil.

Oh and sorrel. Farmer George was the person that figured out that we do like sorrel and he told Bibi.

In his garden we also found all the weeds and things that grow by themselves that rabbits love. Things like purslane, clover, dandelion, dock, cress, purple archangel. My favorite is leaves of wild strawberries.

He also grew in his garden things that people like but we don’t care about so much like squash, garlic, tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, cabbage, zucchini, aspagarus and broccoli.

When we had playtime in the garden we ran all over and dug holes and hid when Bibi tried to get us to take us home.

It was nice to be home too because that’s where we could relax and clean ourselves after eating and running and digging.

Bibi is from a very big city. One day she said we couldn’t live in the country anymore and we were all going to move to the city.

We got sad. We were on so many visits to the city that were not really fun. In the city there is no outside play time. There are so many scary noises but you don’t see what is making them. Everything you get to eat comes from a store wrapped in plastic. It doesn’t really smell so good.

There was nothing we could do about it. We are indoor bunnies and we live with Bibi and if she has to live in the city then so do we.

She said Don’t worry Sandra we are moving to Brooklyn. I think you will be fine. We are moving to a place with a garden in the back. You three will be able to play there.

A garden in a city where we can play? Bella and Boxer and I thought about what that would be like.

And then we moved to Brooklyn to see for ourselves.