A Nature-Filled Tuesday

Lately we've been trying to "catch up" so we could get on track with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. If you do not know what I am talking about you can go here.  So I quickly went through Challenges #5-#10.  For us some of them are not as necessary (like taking a picnic outdoors - we do that a lot when it's nice in the fall and spring; and using a magnifying glass - they have their own and had been using them for a while) so I figured we'd do those when we could, but we'd stick to those challenges that we needed.

However, I also came across another nifty meme - Nature Study Tuesday!  It is quite awesome and similar to the Outdoor Hour so I figured we'd incorporate them both, especially due to the discoveries we made last night and this morning right on our doorstep.

So last night my husband and I were able to have a mini-date (if you don't know what that is, you should! - Be sure to email me or comment if you don't and I'll do a whole post on that topic.) When we came home we were surprised to have several visitors in our driveway. Now our driveway is very long and we have lots of frogs. At night they all come out and hop around our driveway. I haven't figured out why quite yet, but they do. But that makes parking my van a bit interesting. I usually have to slow down at the very end and let Stephen get out so that he can shoo the frogs out of my way so none will be smooshed.

But to our surprise last night, we not only had frogs (only 2) but we had two snails! I had not really ever seen a snail like this before. I knew what they were, but one was making his way from the corner of our path/driveway to the other side of the driveway. The other one was on the mat as you walk in our front door climbing up the brick onto the kick-plate.I ran inside and retrieved my camera so I could take some pictures since all the kids were already sleeping.  Then I had a brilliant idea ... get something to hold the snail who was trying to break and enter at least for the night so that the girls would be able to examine it up close and personal.

Here's a picture of the one snail who ended up making the loooong trek across the driveway.

Then this morning when my husband was getting ready to leave for work he noticed a flower blooming in the back in my triangular bulb garden.  I came to see and there were the most beautiful and elegant flowers I had ever seen.

I don't even know where those bulbs came from.  Stephen's grandmother may have given them to me last year, but they never bloomed for her.  If anyone knows what these are, please let me know - I would love to get some more.

We also noticed, over the weekend after mowing the grass, this watermelon plant growing under our porch.

I have no idea how it got there, since some of you may know I have a huge aversion to melons especially watermelon.  Of course, it's a pity to have it growing there because it will not be edible due to having dogs who spend a lot of time on our back porch if you know what I mean.

Then there are the GIANT Elephant Ears.  We measured one against Arianna earlier today and it was the length of oh half her body.  Stephen and I want to get some more to put around the entire back porch. They are peaceful and pretty and hide the doggie nasties. :)

And to wrap up this wonderfully full Nature Tuesday, I will leave you with some photos of our trip to see the gooselings, our tiger lilies by our mailbox, and my beautiful Mother's Day Rose (I call it that because it was the first Mother's Day gift I received from my husband before my eldest was even born) bush.