5.08.2009

Down by the Pond

Yesterday began dark and wet with buckets of rain pouring from the sky -- of course, that was to be expected as it was my day off ;) Mother Nature noted my distress and finally took pity on me around noon. The skies cleared from solid gray to intense blue sprinkled liberally with puffy white clouds. Yipee! The day was not going to be a total wash-out after all.

First on our ever-growing list of chores was returning our friend's tractor to him. The trip is only about 7 miles but it takes about 45 minutes to accomplish. You can see a lot of things when you are cruising along at 12 miles an hour. For instance, Treebeard, from his perch atop the tractor, saw a long-nosed gar on the shoulder of the road. For those of you who may not be familiar, a long-nosed gar is a fish and this one was a whopper. We weren't near any bodies of water at the time so one has to wonder just how this fish ended up on the side of the road. One of those mysteries that will never be solved...

Once we got the tractor safely back we decided to stop by the millpond before returning home to deal with the 21 tons of pea gravel we recently purchased. We poked around the shore line for a bit and checked out the rocks along the spillway. Nestled among the rocks was a very pretty Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula getula). He had a somewhat unusual pattern so I took numerous pictures.



Posted by Picasa


The Blue Flag (Iris virginica) was blooming along the edge of the pond. The many frogs hanging out amongst 'em declined to be photographed. There were cricket frogs, green treefrogs, green frogs and southern leopard frogs...but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Posted by Picasa


Ah, green...my favorite color!



Posted by Picasa
Batteries recharged, Treebeard and I returned home to shovel gravel and work in the yard.
Life is good.

9 comments:

R.Powers said...

Thank you for those great pictures. The snake is a beauty and that swamp is so green.

PSYL said...

The last photo is so serene.

Perhaps someone caught a gar, and it escaped from the car while it had the chance?

KaHolly said...

That snake did have some beautiful and unusual markings. Your swamp is absolutely gorgeous! No Blue flags here, yet, of course. I've ret'd to my island home in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and get to do the spring thing all over again! Hopefully the rain will stop for a day or two so I can get out there.

swamp4me said...

FC,
The past couple of springs have been dry -- I had forgotten how green spring can be here!

PSYL,
The great gar get-away! Unfortunately it didn't make it far, but the gar's misfortune was the vultures' delight.

karen,
Have fun with your spring redux. It's a season that's all too fleeting here. Soon we'll be in the firm, hot grip of summer.

woverman said...

Wait... you took the tractor back BEFORE dealing with the pea gravel?

What's up with that?!?! :-P

swamp4me said...

woverman,
We are not that crazy! Treebeard moved some of the gravel to strategic locations so that only minimal shoveling and raking was required for the first phase of Project Pea Gravel. BTW, I hear you were a project manager on Extreme Makeover. I didn't realize they built boomilevers on that show :-D

woverman said...

Haha! Glad you saved some work for yourselves!

Yeah... I helped out! Got my 15 minutes of fame on tv standing behind Ty in the circle at the beginning of the show! It was fun though, even though I worked the nighshift (7-7).

Ellen Rathbone said...

How green it all looks. Soon...soon all that green will make it northward!

You have such a lovely swamp!!!

swamp4me said...

woverman,
Glad you had fun -- but better you than me working the night shift!

NatureGirl,
Green, green right now. We've had decent rains at the right times and that makes a huge difference. Hang on...it's coming your way!