In addition to deer, the woods are alive with critters. It’s not unusual for me to see a fox scurrying across my front yard, and the birds… I have a love/hate relationship with them. This summer, before I knew it, all my ferns had adorable nests – all different breeds of birds. The nest closest to my office was built by a Robin family. There were many moments when I was filled with murderous thoughts. The Mr. or Mrs. constantly pecked at the window. The poop? OMIGOD! But the following picture explains why I simply sighed and allowed nature to reign.


After the babies grew and flew off to terrorize someone else, I raced to Wal*Mart to buy rubber snakes. Holy crap. Nearly gave myself a heart attack the morning after I put them out around the house. Of note, the birds are probably laughing themselves silly and saying things like, “Look at that silly humanoid. She’s putting rubber cobras around her house. Boy howdy, is she ever stupid.”

But guess what! The snakes have worked. No more birds except from a pleasant distance, but maybe that’s only until next spring. *sigh* (btw, see how splendidly my ground cover vinca is doing?)


The woods are full of box turtles. I’ve posted this pic before and Eric Mayer aptly observed that it looks like a hand grenade.


Do mushrooms fall under the flora category? Because of last year’s drought, there were few mushrooms. This year they dot my property like aliens. Thank God the season is short lived, but at maturation some of the mushrooms give off a disgusting stink – the smell of rotting flesh. Not nice. *sigh*



Next is a photo of an amazing perennial, a gift from Carol, planted outside my screened porch.


In the middle of my front yard is a funky planter my good friend Minnie gave me. This morning I found it vandalized. I knew it had to have been the deer. I sped to get dressed and dashed to put fresh water in the Portuguese-bowl-birdbath. *sigh*




Thanks for stopping by. I really really don't like these oversized pics. Sorry.