In a Family Way

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. A lot has been going on, but nothing I want to blog about or that other people would care for me to blog about.

We did plant an herb garden and some fruit trees.

We also went to a nice party for Memorial Day. The hostess and some of the other guests are part of a turtle conservation group. I love to talking to people who are passionate experts in their respective fields. We had some really interesting conversations trying to figure out which kinds of turtles we had seen on our land and in the area. They all encouraged us to send them pictures the next time we came across a turtle in our yard.

This evening, Vova and I strolled over to check on the herb garden while he was out smoking his pipe. We were surprised to see that we had a visitor, who seemed to look back at us in equal, open-mouthed surprise.

I ran back inside and grabbed my camera. The garden was planted fairly recently, not to mention that we have had a couple of good cloudbursts in the past two days. The ground was still loose and soft, good for easy digging.

From the front, we didn't immediately notice that the turtle was planting something of its own next to the cilantro in our garden. When I went around behind it to get some better pictures of its shell, I found this:  at least eight little eggs in a neat hole under the turtle's tail.

We went back inside to call our hostess from the Memorial Day party. Vova asked her if we should take any precautions to protect the eggs. He could only laugh in response to her question about whether it was a water turtle or a land turtle.

I emailed her some pictures, so we'll see what it is. I think it's a box turtle, but I really don't know.

Our backyard has turned into a regular nursery now. Our lawn mower shed is a favorite spot for the birds to build their nests. We haven't had any luck in keeping them out the past couple of years, so we just wait until the babies leave and knock out the nest. I thought they usually only have one brood per year, but it seems like we're already on the second one.

Yesterday, I went out to water the garden when I noticed one of the nestling's on the ground. I left it alone at first, not wanting to do more harm than good. I also figured there wasn't much I could do for it other than make sure the cat didn't bother it. A couple of hours and some Internet research later, I put some dried clippings from the meadow in a plastic container. I gently put it in the makeshift nest, which I then put up as near as possible to the one it fell out of.

One of the sites I read said that the mother bird will go back and forth between the nests. I haven't seen her doing so, but the nestling seems to be doing okay. It even seems to have more down on its body than when I rescued it yesterday.

The knitting has been slow going, but I'm almost finished with the first of Ashley's belated birthday socks. The pattern is not clear, but the sock is still cute. I would like to make a pair for myself. Since Ashley is 10 years old, I only did four repeats of the pattern on the foot. I know it will stretch, but kid socks always look so small to me.