Wildlife Wednesday: Thursday Edition

I finally got through all the photos from this week…whole lot a nuthin’.

Don’t strain your eyes; it’s just a picture of the pond…but it’s a pretty one.

Fortunately, I still have some good ones from the previous week.

Welcome to Rocky Raccoon’s Restaurant…

“Oh, Honey! You were right about this place…”

“Do I know how to show a lady a good time, or what?”

“What’s that noise?”

“Oh, Crap! It’s my crazy ex-girlfriend!”

“I thought you said you never brought anyone else here?”

“Er, um….let’s just go.”

“I thought they’d never leave! Hope they didn’t scarf-down all the munchies…”

 ”I KNOW there’s a peanut under here, somewhere….”

I really wish I knew how to combine photos into an animation. That last raccoon stayed around for hours, and kept pushing the rock, this way and that, trying to get to the seeds underneath…cute, but impossible to see without doing some rapid-fire clicking!

 

Garden Show 2012

Where’s Wildlife Wednesday? I had computer issues all day yesterday, so it’s going to be delayed until tomorrow…enjoy the flower show, while I go scroll through a billion pictures of mice eating sunflower seeds….

It’s that time again!

The Rhode Island Spring Flower and Garden show was last weekend in Providence, and I managed a day away from Grandmom-Duty to go last Friday.

I have to say, it didn’t quite live-up to the extravagance of years-past. There were fewer display gardens (perhaps because the Boston show is back this year), and none of them really pushed the envelope. Lots of bulbs, forsythia, witch hazel, and azaleas – things relatively easy to force into early bloom.

Water features seemed to be the unofficial theme of the show – big, bigger, biggest! – but there were a few other pretties, like this little vegetable garden. Neat, tidy, and highly attractive. Those lettuces look yummy!

(Not that I have anything against ponds and waterfalls, mind you. I was hoping for more edibles, though…)

There was fun to be found, though!

This display was less about plant material than junkyard art. How can you not love it? The turtle in the opening photo was his, too.

Hey, Son-in-Law? Can you make me some of these?

After the gazing comes the shopping! All good flower shows have a marketplace…I replaced some worn-out gloves, picked up a few seeds…

Ten dormant strawberry plants from a Connecticut grower…

And these.

Hibernating Headcrabs? Medusa’s little sister?

You’ll have to wait and see!

The Garden Gate

“Can we go in your vegetable garden, Grandmom?”

“Sure, Angel…”

“Can I open the gate? By Myself?”

“I don’t know… can you?”

“OH! It’s already open! Why is it already open, Grandmom?”

“Looks like we forgot to shut it when we were out here yesterday…

“Look here, Angel. THIS is why we always close the gate:

“So that the rabbits don’t dig in our vegetables…”

Yep. A nice, neat little rabbit’s nest, right in the middle of my overwintered Swiss Chard. They don’t build these until they’re ready to have babies…which puts them at least three weeks ahead of schedule…

If the rabbits think it’s spring, maybe there’s hope for my peas…

I Just Couldn’t Wait

Do you know what that is?

It’s a soil thermometer.

Can you see what it says?

It says, “Time to plant peas!”

I know, I know… I’m rushing things. It’s entirely possible that Winter isn’t done with us yet. We could have a blizzard, or a month of below-zero temperatures.

But, what if we don’t?

If the moderate temps are actually here to stay, we could be eating fresh peas by the end of April, rather than June…and they would have the opportunity to produce for a longer season, before summer’s heat shuts them down.

My mouth is watering at the thought…

What’s the worst thing that could happen anyway? If they freeze, or rot from excess moisture, I’ll just replant at the ‘right’ time. There are plenty left in the packet for a second sowing…

You don’t think I’m crazy, do you, Cleo?

Show Off!

How many peanuts can a crow carry at once?

One…

Two…

At least for today, the answer is “three.”

Wildlife Wednesday: Prey and Predator

If you attract a prey species – like this Norway Rat (and his many relatives)

Or rabbits – see him on the left? – to the same spot, day after day or night after night…

The predators will catch on.

That’s a mink, in case you’ve never seen one that wasn’t already a coat…They’re all over the island, but they’re shy critters.

The story Hubby’s grandfather told was that, back in the 40′s or 50′s, a Russian immigrant moved to our island, and brought minks with him to raise for fur. There was some kind of dust-up with the authorities over unpaid taxes, and, rather than give the government its cut, the old man ‘went out of business’ by opening the cages and letting all his minks run free…

Is it true? Who knows…

Minks are in the same family as ferrets and weasels. They eat mice, rabbits, rats, and other small animals. They’ll take down full-grown chickens, given the chance.

They are cute, though…

Here’s a closeup:

Sunrise on the Sakonnet

Some mornings are just too pretty not to share…

The glint of water you can see through the trees is the Sakonnet River; the tidal river that makes my little island an Island. The far shore is Massachusetts.

Even at this early hour, I’m not alone…