Nighttime Visitor

 A couple of new interesting pictures from the motion activated camera.  First is a Raccoon walking in front of a Yucca plant.  The second is a Doe and two babies walking just feet from a car passing by on the road.  They didn't seem to be too scared in this picture.

Elephant Ear Rebound

 Again this year the Elephant Ears on the side of the garage have grown huge and beautiful.  After dying back last fall when the temperature dropped to freezing, we cut off the leave and stems and left the bulbs in the ground.  Even with our cooler and longer winter, they came back to impress the side of the garage.  Unfortunately the Oak Leaf Hydrangeas we planted there this spring didn't make it so back to the drawing board on them.
 

Bumper Crop of Orange Flowers

 The weather this summer has been perfect for a bunch of orange flowers to bloom.  These flowers were growing in a different spot when we moved into the house.  We added a deck that took over their spot but they spread over the years to the beds beside the shed and are enjoying the new location.  

Doe Kicks Buck

 A neighborhood Doe must have been having a bad day or at least a major attitude.  You can see her with a mean look on her face as she stares at a Buck nibbling on grass nearby.  A couple of seconds later she attacks broadsiding the Buck with enough force to almost knock him down.  Maybe she wanted that spot of grass or just a lovers quarrel.

Beautiful Baby Closeups

 After seeing the baby deer with the beautiful coat, I moved the motion activated camera to the front gate.  It only took two days to get great pictures of this unique deer coming and going.  It has such a special coat with a slightly different color pattern on each side.  We hope he grows to a full grown adult and retains some of the coloring.

Baby Deer with a Special Coat

 The parade of baby deer continues with a flourish.  A few weeks ago we started seeing a baby deer with a very special coat.  It is like the genes got confused so instead of have a mostly brown body with a bunch of white spots, this baby got large white areas.  It is almost like a white deer wearing a brown coat.  In the first picture is a buck which we don't see too often but I've see him several time with the baby who has the special coat.  I hope the buck continues to come around so we can watch his antlers get much larger.

This Deer Loves Azaleas

 We have some beautiful Azalea bushes in the front yard but they are almost bare below 4 feet.  This is why.  These deer love to chow down on our Azalea bushes.  Here she is reaching for some juicy leaves and then comes down with a mouth full of Azalea.

More Deer Babies

 Like mother like child. They both appear to be talking to someone.  Maybe they are complaining because there are a bunch of Holly bushes in front of them and that is one bush the the Deer won't eat.  Below is mom with both of her babies.  If you look close at the 2nd baby, it appears to have a growth of some type on the left side of its nose. The growth is as big as it's eye.

Sunflowers Impress Again

 Our volunteer Sunflower continues a magnificent display.  As the first flower fades, four more take over and they appear to be pointing North, South, East and West as if following the compass.  The other is a Sunflower we planted this year and the color scheme is very different from the volunteer.

Potatoes for Dinner

 We were having steaks for dinner last night but only had one potato in the house.  So we decided to harvest one of our container potato plants.  We planted them in these 20 gallon plastic containers and added dirt as the plants grew.  It is an easy method as you just dump the container on a tarp to complete the harvest.  We were quite pleased as this container yielded about three pounds of potatoes with several good baked potato size.  So a great dinner with home grown potatoes.