Enjoying Mother Nature

 Those of you who follow my blog may have the assumption that I spend my time indoors, reading, researching, and drawing.  While those pastimes are accurate, I also extend my curiosity to nature.  Even while typing this blog, I am regularly looking out the window, catching sight of birds and squirls and broken tree limbs from the strong winds this spring.  However, I do not spend all of my nature- watching through the windows.  This week's blog will share some of my recent nature experiences.

Snake skin from eyes & nose to tip of tail

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, Bull Snakes are welcome in our yard.  My husband had alerted me to the possibility of a bull snake around our volunteer onion patch, but I wasn't really paying much attention as I pulled weeds around the patch...until a snake glided out of the patch about 6 inches from my hand and gracefully slipped into the hole I had not noticed.  Despite my friendly feelings for bull snakes, my heart was pounding as I quickly pulled my hand away from his hole, watching him gracefully slip inside.  A day or two later, my husband called to me to see what he had discovered.  Mr. Snake had left a beautiful snakeskin for us, intact from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, about 6 feet in length.  I had found snake skins before, but none so long and perfectly intact.  Notice especially the eye shields in the nose of the skin.

What is this plant?

Earlier in the spring, when I was cleaning out the iris bed, I found a weed that I did not recognize, waving high about the iris.  I estimated it to be about 4 feet tall or slightly more, and the seed pod at the top resembled a dandelion on super steroids.  I decided to wait for it to open before pulling it up, curious to see what it would look like, but hoping to catch it before unwanted seeds scattered.  I was lucky, and not a single seed escaped, and I carefully cut off the stim and carried it to the house before returning to pull up the plant's roots.  I have enjoyed the display of delicate seeds for several weeks, but I have not been able to identify what it is.  Do you know?

My husband tolerates my protective sharing of the farm with a variety of creatures, but he isn't pleased when birds choose porches for their nests instead of trees.  However, since the upstairs porch off my office is rarely seen by anyone but me, he ignores the seasonal mess of mud nests on the light fixture.  It isn't easy to build a mud nest on a smooth brass fixture, but once again a determined couple returned to accept the challenge.  The eggs hatched, the parents kept busy feeding the greedy babies, and now they have departed.  I took this picture of a food delivery, just the parent's tail visible. For me, watching that annual family cycle is worth the mess I will need to clean up later, when the babies "fly the nest"!

  

After years of city life -- which I also loved, --  I am happy to be back on the farm, where Mother Nature provides the constant entertainment!