More Reptilian Adventures

An interesting week here with nature.  Most all of our trees except for one maple tree have leafed out.  The roses are beginning to bloom, we walk around daily and ooh and aah over the buds as they swell and show their colors and just today a few bushes have one bloom open.  The climber on our little bench arbor is busting out.  The new roses are all leafing out nicely.  There is color everywhere.

While sitting in the garden having breakfast yesterday we noticed a different sound and realized it was BIG buzzing and up the hill was a very large swarm of honey bees, what a sound.  They kept on to wherever bees go.

All is great here.  I tell the rest of the story with the pictures.

Poison oak is THICK along a couple of places of the trails
across the highway that we hike, this is just a small patch.
 We can't do anything about it
of course, but we could here at home.  I noticed a big one growing up
out of one of the toyon shrubs I see from the kitchen window.
Larry very carefully cut it out and will work on terminating it.

We took a walk and it was beautiful...I took the short route and lollygagged
taking pictures.  Larry kept on and did his usual long hike.

Gracie flushed this little lizard but it didn't move much
and I was able to catch it and after picking it up I noticed
weird bulges on its neck.  EW!  Small ticks!

I never knew ticks attached to reptiles, I pulled the ticks
from the lizard.  

I hope it felt better.

Our new 10x12 Coleman screen room.  It is
in the shade of trees and will be nice this summer.
We just hope the deer don't damage it, nasty creatures.

Soaking up the sun.

Smells YUMMY!

Adding in some annuals to the new rose bed.

The clematis is quickly covering itself in burgundy blooms.
Dutch iris in the foreground.

Almost four years here and it never occurred to me that snakes
were slithering around after dark.  Gracie while sniffing about,  jumped and acted weird
on one of our potty trips to the garden.  The floodlights are on
but there are a lot of shadows, and I never take the flashlight.

I went back inside to get the light and there was a snake, almost a foot long,
very skinny, a garden snake.  I didn't have my phone, so I went back out
again to get the snakes picture and discovered it had a friend.  They
are friends of the garden, but now I have to worry about rattlesnakes after
dark.  Call me silly but I thought they went to bed when the sun went down.
Larry found it in the water valve box today...he hates snakes, but he
was nice to it.