Flowers and Rabbits

This has been a good week to take photos.  The daylilies are really starting to bloom.  I have a beautiful white one near the pond in the backyard.  Beside the garage door is a wonderful purple with gold deep down inside.  Near the air conditioner units I have a deep scarlet with gold inside.  The daylilies make a nice photos showing the whole bloom – but it is really fun to get extra close for a macro.  The Lensbaby is also a good tool to get unique shots of the lilies in bloom.   If you check out my Flickr page, you can see four of the purple lily.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebarefootphotographercom

 

The backyard is really coming along now.  This week a few storms helped water the new plants that were having a time of it in the heat.    Some of the old daylilies foliage has been looking "tired."  I realized it had been awhile since I fertilized those plants – so not only did they get some needed rain this week – they got some plant food!

 

Before we got the rain – I was taking advantage of the relaxed watering restrictions.  I went out on my assigned day during the assigned time to water – especially the new plants.  Five years ago, when we landscaped inside the fence to create this little courtyard area, we planted Indian Hawthorn along the back and side fence area.  I rarely water these bushes now since they are so well established – but the other day – it had been so hot – I decided to spray them with the hose a little.

 

Well – spraying the bushes gave me my own Jimmy Carter moment in the yard.  Do you remember the story of the rabbit that "attacked" Jimmy Carter during a fishing trip in Georgia?  Here is a link to the story:  http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/killer_rabbit.html. 

 

When I sprayed those bushed a rabbit shot out of them directly at me.  It was a small one – but it was moving so quickly, I was startled.  Unlike Jimmy, I did not beat it off with an oar.  I simply moved (I had been standing very still).  When it saw me moving – it made a sharp right turn and ran out under the gate.  I felt badly I had scared it so.  I felt badly until I saw that it had been eating the buds from my black-eyed susans and purple coneflowers!

 

Update on the pond – I do have a baby turtle and am in the process of identifying what kind it is.  Last Sunday I happened to capture it for a little while – to look it over and take some close ups of it.  I placed it back in the pond.  Last night I tossed out some fish food and noticed the turtle swimming among the fish nibbling on the tidbits.  And – I do have tadpoles.  Not near as many are in the pond as I have had in previous years.  I don't know if the snake or the turtle have anything to do with this.