Another skull

"What's this?" wonders Jacob.

"It's a skull" I say.

"What kind of skull?" he asks.

"A deer skull" I say.

"How do you know?"

"The deer was hit by a car. I saw the body in the weeds beside the road. After a while there were just bones there. That's where I got the skull".

Sarah looked at it closely this morning

"I think this was a young deer" she says.

I agree.

You can see that the back teeth are just beginning to grow in.

It's interesting to look at bones.

Remember the old bone that is in the garden? Sarah and Jacob looked at it again this morning. It was LOTS bigger than the deer skull!

Climbing up a tree

I knew it. I just knew it.

When I saw Groundhog up a tree, and then Chipmunk up a tree, I just knew some day I'd find one of you up there too.

Sure enough today I spotted this critter. Yup. It's Jacob up a tree.
He says the magnolia is the best one to climb. Just so you know.

What's Growing in the Cherry Tree?

This morning Jacob noticed a peculular thing hanging in the cherry tree.

It is not a cherry, is it? Cherries are round. And small. This is triangular. And big.

He guessed right away that it was something to make noise when the wind blows. Then he took this picture: Then we discovered something weird.

The bell has been hanging on the limb SO LONG that the tree has grown around it!
Jacob took a close up so you can see how the hook just disappears into the bark of the tree.

Almost ripe

Yesterday we found enough barren strawberries to almost fill a cup. It was sad to discover that they are not very good to eat.

Today we found something that IS good to eat : blackberries. They are not quite ripe yet.

Also, they have prickles and aren't as much fun to pick as the poor barren strawberries. But someone has been nibbling on them already.

(photo credit to Jacob, who helped feed the birds this morning)

In the tall, tall grass

The rain has made the grass grow really high. I saw the top of the grass moving and went to see what was there. It was a BIG turtle - almost as big as my foot! I think I scared it. Just watch it running to the shelter of the spruce tree.

Go, Turtle, Go!

Wet Weather

It has really been raining and storming here. Water is making ponds where it shouldn't - like in the road. Some people enjoy splashing in the water but most people are unhappy. People can't drive their cars in the water. Our pond is full of water too. The pond is a good place for water.
The pond creatures like the wet.
Dragonflies grow up in water. Now this larva has crawled out of the water and is changing into a dragonfly.
Of course the frogs love this weather. They are calling to each other, ga-gunk! ba-bunk!
The wetter the better for frogs - they don't have to drive cars!

A Tree of Beans and Hearts

It's very green and very wet out after the storms. I spotted something growing in this tree.
Does it look like beans? Will we have beans to eat?

Wait - I don't think beans grow in trees.

Granddad has planted beans for eating in his garden. We'll have to look when it gets dry to see how they have come up (it is too muddy to go up to the garden today).

I don't think he would grow trees in the garden, do you?

The leaves on this tree look like hearts.

Remember when it had purple flowers? The purple flowers turned into these bean-like seed pods.

This tree is Redbud. We can't eat those beans!