surprises in the garden

Sunny skies, cloudy skies, wind, rain, sunny skies….sometimes the weather just needs to make up its mind!  In spite of the indecision on the part of the weather, my father-in-law, Tom, and I persevered in the veggie patch this morning.  We weeded, mulched, admired, planted a little, harvested lettuce and admired some more! 

Tom is particularly proud of the asparagus…it is really thriving! I’ve decided it is doing so well it likes all the attention Tom lavishes on it each time he is in the veggie patch!  And our newly acquired “Papa’s Rhubarb” plants, hand carried from Lancaster, Pennsylvania by Aunt BJ and Uncle Tom are sprouting new leaves and seem to be liking life in Atlanta!

For my part, I was particularly thrilled to find bluebirds sitting on a nest in the new bluebird box, a chickadee nest with eggs in the wren box and either a bluebird or robin nest in the artsy metal bird house my son, Jeff, got me for Christmas!

Perhaps the most unexpected discovery was a baby snake in the wheat mulch I was distributing (without gloves on!) around the strawberries and pepper plants.  After some discussion, we decided the baby snake was not poisonous…and relocated him to the garlic bed.  Hopefully, he won’t grow up to be a copperhead!

But, what really thrilled me today…what MADE my day…were the seven, yes, I counted them…SEVEN white tail deer in my forest…including a beautiful big buck, as surprised to see me, as I was to see them!