Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day for wildlife. I took a walk (sometimes two!) every day last week, varying my usual route and was rewarded with plenty of animal sightings, along with some in my own environs. The fawns above were in my yard while I was hanging out laundry,

while their mother sat in repose nearby in my neighbor's yard.

I saw this rabbit while on my walk and it let me get fairly close for quite a while.

There was this shy box turtle with beautiful markings near the creek, but it seemed to sense I was nearby and wouldn't stick its head out, even after I stuck around for ten minutes.

I headed down to my mint patch to make a last pitcher of mint tea and spied this praying mantis, and I've seen it several times since. I think it might be a female, so I'm going to be looking hopefully for a praying mantis egg case in the next few weeks. Fun facts: female praying mantises have 6 abdominal segments while males have 8. The final segment of the female is much larger than the others while the male has several small segments towards the end of the abdomen. Also, Males generally have longer and thicker antennae than females do. 

I live in central New Jersey, but there is still plenty of wildlife if you look around and keep your eyes open (even in New Jersey)!
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The winner of the yarn giveaway is Sarah, and your yarn will soon be on its way to you. I hope you knit something lovely with it, and I thank everyone for playing!

Three on Thursday

Joining Carole for Three on Thursday, and today it's with three things I hate. I hope you'll understand better when I explain. 

1.  Squirrels
I don't have many tomatoes left in the garden, but the squirrels have made sure that there are even fewer for those last few tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. They enjoy chewing holes in as many tomatoes as possible with their nasty little squirrel teeth. I wouldn't even mind if they ate one or two whole tomatoes, but they provoke my wrath by taking five or six bites out of eight tomatoes, leaving me with only a couple of good ones. 

2.  Squirrels
My neighbors have a huge walnut tree and the squirrels love walnuts as a main course after their tomato appetizers. I don't really care about the walnuts, but I do care about the little piles of walnut chewings that the squirrels leave everywhere - on the patio furniture, in the driveway, on the hood of my car, and on the steps into the house. I have to sweep up after the squirrels, and the walnut shells stain, so I have long-lasting brown stains everywhere.

3.  Squirrels
I expect the %$#&^*! squirrels to chew tomatoes and walnuts, but their worst infraction was gnawing off one of my limes. I ran out and rescued it before they chewed on the lime itself, and now I've moved my lime tree indoors into Ryan's room. 

I had to rescue the lime even though it's only the size of a large olive, but now I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe make the world's smallest vodka gimlet, because anything is better than letting the squirrels have my first lime.

Head on over here to read more Three on Thursday posts.

One More Sign

After April showers bring May flowers, there is one more sign of spring that I look for.

Fawns!

I usually see the first one in our back yard where the does from the resident deer herd seem to like to tuck their fawns for the day. This one was curled up at the base of a tree near John's workplace, about 20 yards from some rather noisy road construction. I do hope its mother finds a less busy and more peaceful place for her fawn tomorrow.

Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend with plenty of signs of spring -- hopefully you'll even see some sunshine!

Fox on Friday

I didn't take this beautiful photo, but Youngest Son did. He spends hours in the woods in all seasons, and this wonderful photo is one he was lucky enough to capture during those many hours. It's one of my absolute all-time favorites!