...more nature stuff..........

My little cousins who visit their grandparents next door recently found this box turtle on one of their excursions down to the creek. They came by my house to show me the turtle in this white bucket and the nice ferns and soil and mosses from his natural habitat. They were going to take him home and keep him in a terrarium and feed him flies and lettuce and blackberries..........they've done this before, and were very knowledgeable about what turtles need to live happily ever after in what they THINK is their creek-side habitat! I LOVE it when the cousins come to see me and share their doings........Harley: "Come back soon and tell me how "Snappy" turtle is doing!"
You'll need to click on this photo to see the little toad frog trying to hide from me between the rocks. The pix are supposed to enlarge, but I never can swear to it! This froggy is new to the addition of the waterfall to one of the koi/goldfish ponds DH has installed.
And speaking of our wonderful cousin/neighbors next door (who have green thumbs up to their elbows!) here's Don's watermelon vine blooming and growing like crazy........ that means more little melons in the making!
This is actually a small watermelon in the same patch, but there's nothing nearby to compare the size to. I love the shapes of the leaves; and after a rain, I swear you can almost SEE those vines' little "feeler" ends grow! And they wrap quickly around the nearest thing to support them.......another amazing day with Mother Nature, right here almost in our back yard! Thanks for the opportunity every year, Don, to watch your garden grow! (And also for generously sharing its bounty with us!)