and summer with
its heat and humidity and mosquitos is firmly settled in. Ugh. I
usually try to hold out til June 1st before turning on the
air conditioning but when the thermostat said 82˚ and 82% humidity
inside at 12:30, I caved.
Any work outside not done will
probably not get done. Or at least minimally. The summer garden is
more subdued than the riot of color of the spring garden and while we
get the threat of rain it doesn't materialize and I'll spend a lot of
time watering, like I did this morning. And will again this evening.
It's been a snaky spring. Besides
seeing the resident coral snake twice in one week I saw this guy
twice in a matter of days as well. First spied when I noticed the dog
with her curious stance looking closely at something under the
magnolia tree.
At first I thought it was trying to
swallow an old seed pod from the magnolia thinking what an idiot.
When I looked closer I saw it was swallowing a toad with only it's
back legs and butt sticking out.
I thought it was a rat snake but my
friend Andy says it's a hog nosed snake, that toads are toxic except
to them. Then I saw it again a day or two later by the garage door.
Besides the living snakes I came
across two medium sized snakes squashed in the road while walking the
dog and two little garden snakes as well. And while digging out more
of the mexican petunias I found this shed skin.
Saw a clump of orange dots, looked
closer and this is what I saw...
they started spreading out when I
jostled the foliage. These baby spiders are about the size of the
head of a pin (click to bigify).
The green frog was back on the
bromeliad but I haven't seen him again since.
Big Mama was out prowling around. She
does this for two reasons in the spring. Either she's feeling the
urge to lay eggs or she thinks I'm not feeding her enough. I'd lay
odds on the latter. I noticed I'm down one more goldfish. Her posse
is getting smaller.
Wow what a picture of a snake swallowing a toad. Ew. But I guess they have to eat something; I just thought it was usually nice.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had fireflies here in Oregon.
Same-same here, Ellen although I haven't seen any snakes but that usually just means that I haven't been looking closely enough. I need to remind myself to do that before I start sticking my hands in random places. I got bit by two yellow flies today. I hate those bastards. And yes- the heat. I did work outside some today but not for long periods of time. And according to the weather forecast it may never rain again.
ReplyDeleteSigh...
Here we go, Ellen. Summer in the deep south. There's nothing about it that I particularly find amusing but the lightening bugs are lovely as are the dragonflies (which I've already seen here too) and of course, the heat gives us incentive to go jump in the river.
Sigh...
Hot here in North TX, too. I noticed that the next week the forecast is constantly high 80's to 70's at night. How I dread the months ahead. We do have several days ahead with possible thunderstorms, but oftentimes the only thing they do is contribute to the sauna effect.
ReplyDeleteOur garden toad came out from under the skirting for the first time, today. He stood still for his picture to be had, but I'm too tired to go on about it tonight.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's quite some wild life you have around you. I am glad we don't have those spiders or snakes but impressive to look at. No summer here yet.
ReplyDeletei am rodent and snake and lizard and frog phobic. hmmm. i wonder if that's why i live in a city full of high rises. and yet i love nature, trees and fields.
ReplyDeleteLots of nature! I love the green frog. I hope he comes back (and stays away from the hognose snake). Sorry you're getting summer heat already, but yeah, I'd turn on the a/c too! We've had the opposite problem here -- it's been hard to turn off the heat, but I think as of this week it won't be needed until October or so.
ReplyDeleteI'm a week late, but now I'm able to commiserate with your heat - 92 here today. Sheesh! We're sliding into summer too...
ReplyDelete