The cardinals were back again! This year, they took up residence
in a holly bush near the pond. One fine Saturday morning, they
all took to the air for practice flights around the yard, while
their parents screeched at them
(and me, as I got kinda close for the picture).
Later in the Summer, a pair of Eastern Ribbon snakes slithered by.
This one climbed up the weeping hemlock between the pond and deck.
The snakes stayed for a month or so... they might still be around,
we just haven't seen them for a couple weeks.
This picture is titled "Serpent Sous Une Chute D'eau"
(or, "Snake Under A Waterfall").
One hot day, this "cool snake" came slithering out from under the
waterfall and paused/posed long enough for me to capture this picture.
One of the kids touched this snake's tail... very exciting!
He then took on the role of Harry Potter and began a conversation
with his new friend.
As I am not a
parselmouth,
I know not of what they spoke.
It's the beginning of fall. The water lettuce has grown
to cover most of the pond. There's so much of it, I have to
pull out chunks every week in order to feed the fish.
That weeping hemlock in the lower right hand corner is the
aforementioned "snake tree."
This is the left channel of the upper waterfall. Those rocks have
been there a few years, and there is a lot of moss starting
to take hold up there.
Finally, a close-up of the upper waterfall! I used a little mortar and
rebuilt this earlier in the Spring (to get better flow over the falls).
The water comes out between some rocks in the upper right hand corner.
Birds are generally taking baths here, while squirrels
and chipmunks often stop by for a drink on their trek
across the yard.
Oh! And since I had 20 watts of unused power on the transformer, I added a couple 10-watt shell lights... the one pictured here illuminates the upper waterfall and reflects the rippling water at night.
And then Winter settled in...
