Getting ready to the mow yard, I was walking about on P-Patrol with bucket and scooper in hand. A butterfly took notice, and flew around me and then the bucket. After a couple of turns around the stinky bucket including a brief in-and-out, it lighted on the toe of my boot and started tasting my boot with its proboscis.

It did this for about a minute, and I decided to see if I could get in to climb on my finger (remembering our visit to the butterfly garden at Callaway.) A gentle nudge from the front, and the butterfly climbed on my finger. It started tasting away. After another minute, I wondered if I could get a photo. So I put down the bucket and scooper, and carefully walked inside to get my BlackBerry and then back outside.

I wanted a photo with the wings open, which proved almost impossible to time given the random opening and the one second delay the BlackBerry has while taking a photo. I took about 30 photos trying to get it right. Most ended up being blurry, but the one here came out pretty good.

All of this took about 5 minutes with the butterfly probing away and slowly moving from my finger to my thumb. I then let it climb onto one of Kathy’s flowerpots where it did some tasting, then flew away. Flowers. “Blech.” Boots and thumbs. “Yum!”

As spring came to our little pond, I was surprised to find a full size bullfrog this early in the season. (One of my favorite of many posts on this topic here.) He parked himself in one of the pond plant pots, with eyes and nose just above the water line, catching bugs, etc.

I noticed a short delay in his decision to jump away from me, so I wondered if I could swiftly move in and grab him by hand (vs. the net technique I had used in the past.) Sure enough, I came in low and swiftly the next time he returned, grabbed him with my hand, and tossed him out into the yard.

Stout loved this. It seems bullfrogs only have six to eight good hops in them, before they get tired. Every time he hopped away, Stout rushed to the next spot to sniff him. It was terribly exciting for Stout. After getting hopped-out, the bullfrog resorted to a defensive posture with nose to the ground, hindquarters in the air, and sides puffed out. “I’m too big to eat, and I smell like a frog butt,” is the message.

That was two weeks ago. Since we have no goldfish to protect, I tossed him back in the pond. But this weekend I discovered we have two small frogs in the pond, too. To give them a better chance at survival, I decided to evict bullfrog #5. Stout and I repeated the catch process, and this time, after being hopped-out, Stout and I took the frog to the storm drain. He was last heard splashing down the pipe that exits in another part of the neighborhood.

Danny and I went over to Gramalie’s yesterday to tackle the path, one of mom’s top worries. The grass path has become mostly a dirt path because grass is not going to grow in the shade of the screen porch and the canopy of trees.

The three of us went to Home Depot and picked out 23 pre-fab brick (really concrete) square tiles. About 16″ square. Heavy. Danny and I dug shallow square holes to level out and hold each stepping stone. We should have done this years ago, because it makes so much sense. Works well with the lumber tiers already in place.

Next step: Lava rock or dwarf mondo grass as filler.

I noticed that the humming birds were enjoying the purple hasta flowers, but did not seem to be enjoying the glass hummingbird feeder. I told Kathy that maybe the nector (sugar water) has to stay filled to the top for them to get anything.

She refilled it, and I just counted one of the humming birds dip into the red, glass flower 23 times in a row before belching and flying off.

hummmm…. (burp)

Earlier in the summer, Mary Claire asked if she could mow the yard when Danny left for college. I told her I thought that would be fine, and we even had a training session where she mowed the top part of the back yard. She learned how to open the shed, back out the mower, check for gas, adjust the wheel height, prime the engine, and start it.

I also showed her how the blade worked under the deck so she had a sense of what was spinning under there. Before actually mowing, she wanted to practice without the engine running. That was a pretty good idea. She “mowed” several rows, practicing how to turn the mower. Finally she started it up with only three pulls, and mowed the practice session. She put the mower back up, and ran in to report to her Mom what she had done. That was several weeks ago.

With Danny off to Spring Hill, Claire mowed the entire front and back this weekend. She really did a very good job and earned full pay. Grandaddy and Mr. Pink both reviewed her work and were impressed. Grandaddy wants to know if she will learn to edge.

When we moved into the house there was a square plot of ground raised with a border of landscape timbers. It only contained tomato cages and weeds. Kathy attempted to grow some vegetables, but we have too many rabbits living in the neighborhood. So she converted it to a flower garden.