Wild Kingdom

Wild?  Here?  In our semi-urban setting?  Oh yes indeedy.  Since it's nearly midnight the birds are nice and quiet but the peepers, toads and their friends are filling in nicely thank you very much.

Earlier in the week, Thursday as a matter of fact, as I was slowly driving around the pond towards our house I spotted something new.  New to me anyway.

Yep.  More snakes.  Not venomous this time, thank goodness.  As far as I can tell they are northern water snakes.  (Another link.)

Not having my camera in the car, I grabbed it from the house and walked back to see what was going on.  The red arrow is pointing to the snake.  They were apparently having a party in the pond with the koi and the turtles.  If you click on the photo you may also be able to see at about a dozen koi and at least as many turtles.  The snakes that appeared to be playing with each other when I drove by, quickly dispersed when I walked up so these were "lucky" photos.  I had no idea until I imported to iPhoto that I'd actually captured them.  20X zoom from the safety of the road is plenty close enough for me!

Also this week I decided to be brave and tackle the front flower beds.  Clover was taking over. It looks much better now and just needs a good layer of mulch......and nothing bit me so it's all good.  :-)

I pooped out before I got to this one but it's mostly just a matter of leaf litter out and mulch in.

While I was working the bluebirds were busily feeding their brood.  Mama chattered nervously at me when I got too close but she bravely flew back and forth bringing dried mealworms from the bird feeder.  Dad seems to prefer hunting for "real" prey.

Peekaboo!

This weekend is the county library system's book sale.  It was held in the Jim Graham Building at the state fairgrounds again.  The building is used for livestock shows, car shows, boat shows, gun shows, you name it.  It's 95,000 square feet and was full of books.  This quick shot with my cell phone is only showing about 1/4 of the room.  It's amazing really.  We were smart this year and brought along a small trolley.  You never know what treasure you might find for a dollar!

Today was devoted to the home front.  The garage got an initial cleaning and a car-load was taken to the "dump."  Then I decided to make our (ugh) pollen coated porch usable again.  All the furniture was scrubbed down and I hosed down the floor, walls and screens.  A huge improvement.

I even resurrected my lounge chair which hadn't been cleaned or used for several years!  Once I get a new cushion for it I'm looking forward to naps on the porch.....when it's not too hot!

It was hot enough for bugs today.  Something from the Wild Kingdom bit me good.  The welts aren't even that itchy but they sure are big and ugly.

This evening, while The Tramp treated us to several episodes of The South Bank Show I puttered with triangles.  The making of the Sgt. Pepper album was very interesting.  The Pet Shop Boys not so much....for me anyway.  And lastly a show about Danny Kaye.  It was nice to have the entertainment while I finished cutting and settled down to sewing more geese units and half square triangle units.

A bit tedious I'm afraid....but at least I did a better job cutting these triangles than the original set!  :-)

Happy Mother's Day!