As I came around the corner towards the back porch and started up the step towards the door, I caught a fleeting glimpse of long legs, and watched the water ripple in the drink cooler turned pond, a frog, had just dived into my mini pond.
Here in the dry climate that we now call home, live the teeniest tiniest tree frogs no bigger than your thumbnail. They like to hang out on the tank of the BBQ, the propane is cool, and my husband had one jumping out of his runner the other morning.
I was tickled pink that it had chosen to take a quick dip, because there was live sushi in the pond and I was just about to clean it out. Due to the extreme heat I had put off cleaning up the pond for a day or two, and there were some mosquito larvae swimming around. I’m hoping that the little frog dines out tonight on mosquitoes doing the job of cleaning up for me.
This butterfly showed up, we usually see them from a distance, sparkling yellow with deep black markings, they fluttered from one yard to the other… but never stop for more then a second. At first there were 5 now we are down to less… their lives are short, but beautiful. It definitely prefers to hang out on the Echinacea. Thanks to the FB readers of Muddy Boot Dreams who identified it as a Tiger Swallowtail, I’m going to impress my friends by correctly identifying it the next time it shows up. No more generalizing and calling them all Monarchs.
There was a hummingbird that amazingly stopped to peer into our window as if to ask where the feeder was. It sat on the trellis for a few minutes, and I dared not move in case it took off, so no photos. We know that they will come back to a food source for a year, the feeder is going up tomorrow. It was almost cheeky in the way that it kept staring inside… ”feed me.” Reminds me of the Boo.
It’s been a lot of work, the soil is poor here, we are building it up bit by bit.it’s worth it to see the quail, and the pheasants bring back their young, the chickadees nesting in the birdhouses that my Dad built. The butterflies, and the hummingbirds hanging out, and to hear the frog ribbet at night through the windows. Despite the water restrictions, heat, and towering fir trees, along with the never ending bugs, and mosquitoes that bite me as I try to water, I remind myself that this is why I do it, it’s a dream come true.
Summer blogging schedule continues, look for MBD posts on Wednesday, Friday’s and Sundays.