Incredible Black Magic

The Black Magic plants spent the winter in the greenhouse where they died back to nothing. With warm weather, the plants are back in the pond growing like crazy and offering a beautiful display. In addition to the Black Magic in the first picture is our lone surviving Banana tree. We tried to keep 4 Banana trees in the greenhouse over the winter but on this guy lived to grow again. It is looking quite good and it has a tiny off-spring at the base of it's trunk.

Tiny Tree Frog and Spider

The cutest frogs in the world are emerging from the ponds. About a month ago, the tree frogs laid a bunch of eggs and those eggs are now growing into delicate tiny green frogs. Here is one of the little guys climbing to the top of a Sweet Flag leaf to where he is 4 feet off the patio. What do you do if you come face to face with a spider on the same leaf? You sit on him, of course. I don't know what happened next but I was rooting for tiny frog.

Squirrel Close Up

One of the neighborhood squirrels still hasn't given up on trying to get to the bird feeder. Earlier someone moved the camera to aim at the front porch light (I suspect this squirrel). He then jumped to the front porch light and posed for the camera. The second picture is our squirrel just before he jumped back to the camera spinning it into the brick wall. I don't think he ever got close enough to jump to the bird feeder so the birds are safe another day.

Chocolate Mimosa Tree

Last weekend we planted a Chocolate Mimosa tree in the front yard. At least 10 years ago, we removed a large Hickory tree from this location and it has taken us this long to decide on a replacement tree. We are hoping this tree will provide the sculpture and color we'd like in front of the house. This tree is a just over six feet tall with a couple of flower buds. With luck we should get some of the beautiful pink blooms that these trees produce in the summer. According to our research, the Deer don't like to eat these - we hope the research is correct.

Hungry Deer

Many of the leaves on the lower branches of our Azalea bushes have already been eaten by the neighborhood deer. This Doe has decided to start on some of the taller branches. Those leaves must be good for the deer to go to this effort for dinner. The other picture is obviously late at night so it is impossible to know what this midnight snack is but I suspect it must be an apple that fell off the tree. That is probably the last of the apples as the tree is now bare of fruit.

Stinky Mushroom Has Short Lifespan

Mother Nature never ceases to impress me with new experiences. This unique three stem mushroom popped up Sunday morning under our Redbud tree. It emitted a very strong unpleasant odor. I have never seen a mushroom like this before so I tried searching for info but didn't find anything to identify it. Later in the day, the tops were gone and the stems were lying on the ground. And a number of strange looking bugs were eating it. Monday morning the mushrooms were completely gone. Less than 24 hours for a complete process of birth to death. The name of this is Stinkhorn - pretty appropriate.

Deer Head Shot

No not that type of head shot, this is with the camera. A couple of local deer decided to pose for the camera this week. The first picture is so clear, it's a great closeup of the deer. The second, not as clear is very interesting because the deer has a mouth full of green apple. Our apple tree this year is very heavily laden with apples and the squirrels are actively harvesting them. Some time the squirrels only take one bite and throw the apple down and sometimes there is just an apple core left. Either way the deer are happy to chow down on any apples on the ground.

Two Baby Deer

Almost every day we see deer wandering around the front yard. I aimed the camera toward the driveway and captured some pictures of the deer. First this group of four adults moved into camera range. But even cuter is the second picture of a Mother Deer with her two babies. We've seen this family group several times with the kids running around as Mom keeps an eye on them. A couple of times when we have driven down the driveway, we can see Mom run away while the babies hide in some nearby trees. I think she is just trying to divert attention away from the babies.

Hawk at Midsize Pond

After cleaning the midsized pond and refilling it, one of the first visitors to come by was the Hawk several days in a row. I'm not sure if he was actually hunting since the only residents of the pond were tiny tadpoles. There may have been a couple of small frogs but these little critters were a bit out of character for the large Hawk. He seems to go for large Goldfish and frogs.