The Lily Pond

With most national and state parks closed and the garden tours and big church sales canceled or postponed, we are finding local things to do.  This is the local nature center's lily pond.  A nice place to take a Sunday stroll.

I could see a lot of buds, but no blooms.  We came back two weeks later to see them and had missed them.

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I love the dragonflies and trying to capture them in a photo. 

The thrift shops are still open and seems like everyone is cleaning out their homes with nothing else to do.  There was a big bag of hand embroidered items at the Salvation Army, and I got the whole bag for $5.  This mom deer and fawn was one of the items. This one is a keeper!  

Finding a lot of unique items, and most of these were sold the minute I listed them.

This apron was also in that $5 bag and is a beautiful piece.

I'm finding so many afghans.  With temps in the 90s, no one is thinking of buying them, so this is when I get my stock for colder weather.

Jake and Ben were here to fix a rotted beam on our porch roof and were kind enough to move both of my cement garden benches. 

This one is in the front yard next to the farmhouse.

                            Tomatoes are coming in and we are eating a LOT of tomato dishes, fresh salsas and Italian potato casserole.

     

                               Wildlife in strange places!  Frog in the dogs' water bowl every night.

                                                                   Snakes in the birdhouses. 

        Sadly, coming down my driveway I saw this on the power line.  I couldn't figure out how he could be hanging by his toes.  

I brought Croscima over from the boathouse garden, but no blooms this year.  Mindy is growing them in her garden, so I clipped a piece to put in a vase.

Judy, do you know what this plant is?

Still looking for a perfect spot for my vintage camper light, but in the meantime, it sits on a table in my living room.

                               A surprise in the mail this week from a chow friend.  Need to find a pillow to fit.

In rescue the past two weeks, this is Scooter.  Raised over $1000 and got him rescue.

               This cute guy, now named Rusty, took most of my week up last week. He was four hours away, I raised over $1000, found rescue in Atlanta, drove to Charlotte one day to meet David, brought him home for an overnight and then drove him the next day to the SC/GA line.  This week working on a 10 year old whose owner died in the same area.  Never ends.

I will be able to sit on my bench and look at my azalea garden in spring!

Baby, the fawn, is always hanging up at the house.  She is coming so close, but I don't want to encourage that.  This morning, the more I talked to her the closer she came.  I have left the pasture gate open, but she doesn't want to leave.  Her mother is always here, too.

My Little Fawn

I was seeing this deer a lot in my pasture, thought it odd, especially during the day.

While working in the vegetable patch, there was the baby close to my compost pile. All I could see was the ears, and I was thinking that's a huge rabbit!

It's been a month now.  Mom stays in the woods or the bamboo forest during the day, usually appears at dusk.

I see the baby a lot more than mom.  Sometimes mom is not seen for a few days and with the heat I worried about the fawn, so I filled a kiddie pool and leave apples each day.

It's been a few days now since I have seen her, but the fawn was on the driveway yesterday.  I am constantly peering through the bamboo looking for her.

A few days ago when looking out my living room window, there was the fawn doing zoomies back and forth on the driveway, doing a big loop on my path through the woods.   The photos are foggy, but they were the closest I had been to her. 

I thought maybe she was strengthening her spindly legs in order to jump the fence and finally be with mom.  If she can jump the fence, then I know she will be safe from the coyotes.

She seems content being here.  When I encounter her in the pasture, she stops and watches me, she doesn't run.  I hope to see her with her mom soon. I read they spend two years together.

In the garden, a lot is in bloom and with the heat needs a lot of watering.  I don't have many things left in the pasture garden because of the spring rains washing seeds away and then the deer devoured much of what was left, especially the sunflowers and marigolds.  At least they haven't eaten the tomatoes or pumpkins.

Teasel

Queen Anne's Lace

Mimosa (Chinese Fringe Tree)

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Down by the farmhouse I exposed the stone wall along the driveway and planted Veronica (Speedwell)

Magnolia

Candy Cane Petunias at the Farmhouse

Gooseneck Loosestrife

Last year I dug up these lilies that were in the bamboo forest behind the farmhouse.  They were just a pair of tiny green leaves because no sun was reaching them.  This year they bloomed and they are double ruffled orange and red.

The gardenias were the size of saucers this year, I'm assuming from all the rain and cool weather we had, just like they hydrangeas.

Butterfly bushes and Larkspur

So we had a dust storm from Africa and for a few days it almost looked like a solar eclipse.

This is how the sky looked at two in the afternoon, a thick haze.

We were promised amazing sunsets from the dust, and we did get a few.

In rescue:  This is Angel, a senior chow whose owner could no longer keep her because of her toddlers.  I arranged transport for Angel from West Palm Beach, FL to my friend Marcia in Drums, PA.

Here is Angel with Boss Man who I rescued last year from LA.

This is Chaco, one of the Arkansas dogs that came to my home with his brothers in January and stayed two days with George, Rubi and others.  He got to his new home in TN and one day ran out the door and was seen a few times, but it has now been almost two weeks since we've seen him. I've raised about $2000, hired a tracker, but we have not found him. Saturday I hired a lady to put up flyers in a two mile radius in hopes we get a call.  I have been to TN looking for him myself with no luck.  Now covered in poison ivy, I am taking a break from going up and hoping that someone sees him.