They're back!

Last year, I wrote about these ugly concrete parking barriers my husband installed in front of my workshop. His idea for this year was to pound steel stakes into the holes to keep the parking barriers from moving around. "Nope, can't do it. My toads will be coming back to use these, so don't interfere with them." Within minutes of my telling him this, a little toad poked his head out to say hello.
Here are some of today's toad observation. This one poked its head out pretty early in the morning and lingered around the hole most of the day. Later in the afternoon he came out to hang around by the downspout of the rain gutter.

Sometimes timing is everything

Yesterday afternoon, I took a break from working in the shop to enjoy a few minutes on the front porch. Something small caught my eye making its way across the road. So, I had to go investigate. I grabbed the camera and looky what I found! A young box turtle! I've been waiting all year to see these guys.
He crossed the road successfully and stopped to take a rest in gutter of the road. Even though we don't get much traffic through here, I knew it wasn't a safe place for him to be. The road is narrow and when two cars come upon each other, each one has to make way for the other--by veering into the gutter of the road. I picked him up to check him out....



































...then moved him a few more feet away into my backyard
where he can be safe and sound. Just a minute later, two cars came through at the same time...wouldn't you know it, one car rode in the gutter to get around the other. Whew!! Mr. Turtle had a lucky day for sure!

















Here are two more finds from the yard yesterday. Snail are everywhere this year, I've never seen so many!

















Loads of toads, too. Big ones, small ones. I dig toads!