Nature Can Be Peaceful

As we did last year, we moved several of our pineapple plants to the front porch for the summer. We noticed something was eating the leaves almost down to the base of the plant. I set up the camera to catch the culprit. The camera doesn't lie - the bunny did it. Look at that bunny chomping on the leaves. As you know, pineapple leave are quite sharp and pointed but that is not discouraging this guy. This bunny also eats the thistle seed the birds drop from the feeder above: but a peaceful scene with the bunny and the dove sharing a meal.

Crotons Hide in Garage

To save our beautiful Crotons, we moved them into the garage. They are so large and heavy, we used a hand truck to move them. The storm has past and they are being returned to the front porch. We'd had these two plants for a long time they started as tiny plants on sales at a supermarket. I almost killed them several years ago when I didn't get them into the house before the first frost. After that, I move them inside on November 1st no matter what the weather report is. We lost three giant trees in the hurricane but no damage to our house. Sadly two goldfish have died from a lack of aeration in the pond due to the power outage that continues.

Pineapple Update August

With Hurricane Irene moving in our direction, we had to move all the plants outside to safer locations. Our prized pineapple got to move into the house for ultimate safety. Here it is with the only grapefruit tree to get the same inside treatment. The rest of the plants either moved to the greenhouse or up close to the house. The closeup of the pineapple shows how much it has grown. It is now 10 inches top to bottom. I don't know how long the stem can continue to support it as it must be getting pretty heavy.

Dry Stream Bed Critters

I got a couple of pictures of critters wandering in the new dry stream bed. It is not unusual to see a bunch of squirrels so seeing this little guy is no surprise. The nighttime photo is not common at all. Occasionally we get a picture of a raccoon but this one really shows the pointy nose and striped tail. It looks like he is aiming for the pond. Maybe for a drink of water but I suspect he planned to do some fishing. I hope the fish and frogs were smart enough to stay in the deep water away from this predator.

Hawk at the Small Pond

Our local Hawk stopped by the newly cleaned small pond a couple of days ago and posed for the camera. He gave us a nice front view showing off the reddish feather on his chest and then a back view as he looked into the pond. Maybe the nice clean water gave him a better view of the Goldfish in the pond. Shortly after these pictures, he jumped into the pond going after those Goldfish. Unfortunately that picture wasn't very clear. I hope the Goldfish were smart enough to stay at the bottom of the pond.

Waterfall Converts to Dry Stream

I had an urge to change the waterfall so I dismantled it and tried to fill in the space with patio pavers. Whoops! They didn't fit. My wife came up with the idea of a filling the space with the rocks that were in the waterfall, creating a dry stream bed. It turned out pretty good and expanded the useable patio space. In the course of taking down the waterfall, we had to relocate four frogs to the large pond. Hope they like their new home.

Pond Bunny

In past years, we've had the squirrels eating some of our pond plants. This year the Bunny joined in. Here he is going after the Mexican Petunia. He chomped down on the long green leaves leaving the small blue flowers untouched for now. Earlier the Bunny was feasting on a Philodendron on the deck. This plant started with several two foot long stems covered with leaves. The Bunny chewed them back to the pot and then went after the Petunia in the pond.

Small Pond Large Goldfish

Yesterday I cleaned the small pond since the water was getting quite dirty. As usual, this is the opportunity to take inventory. I found 11 Goldfish in sizes ranging from 3 inches to 10 inches. That 10 guy was really getting too big for the small pond so he graduated to the large pond. I just hope he doesn't become dinner for one of the neighborhood predators. Interestingly I found a violation of nature in that there were two large Bullfrogs in the small pond. Usually one claims the space and chases the others away. To accommodate both I increase the number of Bullfrog tunnels from one to three. Maybe they can live in harmony if each has his own home.