I’ve seen some in the western part of the state, in the panhandle, but they’re long gone from around here. There are still some jackrabbits around, I understand, but I haven’t seen one for ages. There’s the occasional cougar, and that gets people’s attention, especially in town! We definitely have coyotes.
One fun thing happened a couple of weeks ago – it was dusk and I saw the silhouette of a creature against the sky on the bare side branch of a big cottonwood about 40 feet up, and did a double take. It was too big for a squirrel, and I thought it might have been the odd feral cat. When three or four more somewhat smaller followed it, it was easy to also determine that it wasn’t a possum, either, but a mom raccoon with her young’uns. It was too dark and too quick to get a picture, though.
A similar day lily in my front yard. This particular one was divided from my grandfathers yard in the 1960’s, raised in my parent’s yard,and divided and planted in my yard when they moved from the farm around 2002.
They are amazing, aren’t they? Very hardy…they even thrive at the gravelly alley behind my parents’ house (my dad always called them the “lillies of the alley”!
I have heard you can eat every part of that kind of lily, but I would have to look it up again to be sure.
I didn’t expect to see such beautiful poppies last month when we were in Iowa! The petals were unfortunately blown away with some strong winds during that time. @SkovandOfMitaze that green snake is kind of cute, maybe I wouldn’t hop and shriek if I saw a little green one in the wild?
Another perk of Walmart grocery delivery – our driver, Danny, snapped this on his way down our lane this afternoon. I knew from a couple of sources that we had at least one fawn around, but since I am out so seldom, I hadn’t seen it yet (nor was especially likely to), and the trumpet vine needs to be cut way back, because I can’t see down the driveway. But if it weren’t for the trumpet vine being that big, they might not be bedding under it and be so near, if that is indeed where they are staying consistently. So he took the one photo, and then he said the mom came out from the side and nudged the fawn’s butt to move it back into some cover. I’m glad he got to share some of the beauty God gives us out here, and told him so in my thank you email.
Included with a text from my neighbor, “Do you have a pot o gold in your yard?” I had just remarked to my wife that there was a rainbow to our southeast (not that we could see it), after bright sun immediately followed a brief but solid rain.
You can also see that they lead busy lives with three kids (11, 13 and 15 years old), a dog, chickens and an old horse. The chickens were seriously reduced in number recently by an unknown predator.
Kinda like a “ship in a bottle” sort of thing? It makes me wonder, If I put it in a small glass bottle (like the old fashioned pop bottles), would it eventually shatter the glass? Or would it just grow in a deformed way?
I don’t know. I pulled it off the vine when it had filled most of the bottle but was still a typical watermelon shape. If I do that again, it would be fun to try to pickle it and preserve on in the bottle. Of course, that was back when vinegar came in glass jugs. It would be hard to find a glass gallon jug today.
It was too dark and too quick to get a picture, though. 
