It's been quite a while since I've shared anything about the great outdoors. And that's a shame because so much is going on. The delicate pink tree peonies are in bloom, as are my gorgeous bearded irises worthy of Van Gogh. The hay-scented ferns are up, the butterflies are back and the herb garden is already bursting with thyme and chives. The angelica, now protected behind a fence is big and bushy, sending up tall shoots topped with lovely, frothy blooms. I'm spread so thin, I've barely been out other than to take a cursory glance and do some much-needed weeding. Thankfully, G is able to get up on his crutches for long enough to do the daily watering required in this heat, and he goes around on his butt planting new acquisitions. Yesterday, from inside the house he heard a noise or somehow sensed a strange presence in the yard, and hobbled out to find this fellow propped up against the garden fence. An enormous, prehistoric-looking snapping turtle, all fierce and armored.

When G tentatively stuck one of his crutches out toward the turtle, it shot him a poisonous look and hissed! When he checked back half an hour later, the turtle was heading back toward the swamp behind our house.

I was in the city, so I missed him, but I did see the tiniest, most adorably freckled baby fawn this morning, scrambling up a slope on its wobbly newborn legs. Truly a sight to behold.