We had several days where we had to stick close to home, but I've been amazed at what kinds of interesting things we were able to find just in our yard. It's truly a matter of simply taking the time to look!
In my garden/weed patch/maze, the deer and bugs have done their work! The sunflowers surrounding what I had hoped would be a sunflower "house" for the kids are being eaten like crazy. Some kind of bug is eating the leaves from the centers outward. The deer are just clipping the tops right off! Speaking of which, this one has been sticking REALLY close to our house for the last 4-6 weeks...I think she might have a fawn hidden nearby. Anyway, I really can't object to sharing my lame attempt at gardening with HER, can I? Isn't she beautiful?
Back to my garden/weed patch. I had planted butterfly weed, hoping to attract butterflies...here is what sprouted up right in the middle of all the butterfly weed:
Yes, that is white Foxglove. VERY toxic, not what I had planned on in a "children's" garden, but it's pretty, isn't it?
We found this big spider web when the sunlight was hitting it just so:
Letting my garden (weed patch) grow all wild and brambly has brought us other visitors, too...here is a red-spotted newt, or red eft, who was just sitting there, looking at me, while I was trying to fight back nature and pull some of the weeds growing around my sad-looking sunflowers.
He's gorgeous, isn't he? I'm letting the boys keep this one. We've put together a habitat for him with dirt and moss from the yard, a little hiding place made of a piece of wood, and a little water dish. I dug up enough dirt to be sure there are plenty of worms in there for him to eat, and the boys and I even bought some little crickets to feed him.
If anyone has tips to share on caring for a red eft, please share them with me! Lastly, Sara, this one is posted just for you! I spotted it in my front flower garden:
I'm still on the lookout for the red ones with white polka-dots...we had them last year!
I'm still on the lookout for the red ones with white polka-dots...we had them last year! 
2 comments:
Dear Michelle,
Oops, I am so sorry that your sunflower house is being eaten into oblivion. I wrote Sunflower Houses in 1991 and have received hundreds of photos of successful ones from readers all over the world. Give it another try next year, but start the seeds in a paper cup, and use floating row covers just 'til the sunflowers get up and strong.
The red mushrooms with polka dots are deadly amanitas. Talk about toxic. Oh, and yes foxglove are toxic, but they are so gorgeous and play host to lots of bumblebees who follow the pathway of freckles into the treasure of nectar.
Keep on writing!
Sharon Lovejoy
sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com Sharon Lovejoy writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
Oh my goodness...you are Sharon Lovejoy...as in the author of Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, which I LOVE, by the way, and which is where the idea for this whole garden started for me! I've enjoyed your blog; how on earth did you find MINE? And THANK YOU for reading AND taking the time to leave a message! You have left me grinning from ear to ear with surprise.
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