I swear, every time it rains, it rains frogs. I can't figure where else they are all coming from if not the sky right along with the rain. We've gotten a lot of rain over the past two days and this morning we pulled back the solar cover on the pool to reveal more frogs. Eleven, in fact.

We decided to do as Carolyn suggested and put them in a bucket. Rick is the official frog-fisher-outer since they tend to gather in the bottom of the deep end. It's a good thing our net has a nice extension pole on it.

Bella was intrigued by the whole thing.

She kept sticking her head in the bucket. Before I knew it, she had grabbed one in her mouth and spit it out on the deck. He seemed to be okay and I just picked him up and put him back in the bucket with his buddies. I don't know if it was the movement that intrigued her or she just likes frogs. It was hard to keep her head out the bucket and I kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn't try to eat another one.

One got away as I was trying to extricate it from the net and hopped off. He'll probably be back tomorrow. Or the next time it rains.

Rick took the bucket-o-froggies and walked their little green butts down to the creek and dumped them in. If the same thing happens the next time it rains you are not going to convince me that they aren't coming from the sky.

I did a little research on my orange buddy this morning and found out that he is in fact not a lizard but a Red Eft, or also called a Red-Spotted Newt. Their life story is pretty interesting. I found this short description on a blog of someone in Pennsylvania.

"A Red Eft is the young woodland form of the Green Newt, a type of salamander. After the eggs hatch, the babies leave the water for several years to roam the moist woods. They eventually return to the water to mature and spend the rest of their lives. The adults are green with bright yellow bellies and tails like tadpoles. You often see them in aquarium shops. The Efts are harmless, gentle beasts, about two inches long, and are quite startling with their brilliant coloration. After a heavy rainfall you sometimes see hundreds of them emerging from under the leaves and moss."

Here is a link to learn more about these fascinating little creatures. I have no idea where he came from. We do have a small stream that runs through our property, so maybe he crawled up from there. I'm glad I went out to feed the birds yesterday morning at that particular time or I might never have seen one. I'm also grateful that he stayed put long enough for me to run inside and get the camera.

 This colorful tiny lizard was at the foot of the tree where I toss food out for the birds this morning. When I first saw him I thought he was a plastic toy, as those kinds of things pop up in my yard on a regular basis from the kids that lived here years and years ago. But he was real enough and very pretty. I've never seen one like him before.

First off is an update on Alex. I'm glad I had that moment swimming on Saturday night because the past two days have pretty much been hell. Alex had a bad reaction to the chemo treatment and spent two miserable days not eating, having diarrhea, and basically lying around feeling crappy. It was scary. We plied him with anti-nausea meds and anti-diarrheal meds. Last week he had one off day; this week he had two. The vet said this is not uncommon at all and we just have to ride it through. Thank goodness today he is much better, eating a little and barking and wagging his tail again. He's not on the top of his game, but way better than he was. I try to let it not affect my life but it does. My stomach churns and I worry that we are doing the right thing. After all, Alex can't tell us if it's all worth it or not. It weighs on me. Heavily.

The vet visit last Friday went well and he declared Alex in partial remission from the lymphoma. He said that one set of lymph nodes on the front of his chest were still a little more enlarged than they should be but not by much. He was thrilled with his progress! Yeah! Now I can't even feel his nodes they are so far down. So, that's the good news. As long as he has more good days than bad ones I think he'd agree it's worth it.

We have a bear in the neighborhood. A big one if the information coming from two of neighbors is correct. Aileen said he looked like a big black refrigerator. Kim has seen it too, but not me. Not yet.

The fox (or a fox) is still living under the deck. I saw it just the other day and it looks bushy-tailed and healthy. It has not been a problem at all except for the turkey foot I found in the yard. I was wondering why I hadn't seen any turkeys in a very long time. I'm afraid the fox is dining rather well. I can't do anything about that. It's nature at work. 

I have to fish a frog out of the pool quite frequently in the morning. 

Not much is going on right now. I am in the role of care giver and there isn't much space for me. I don't like it, but there it is.

Look who is living under our deck! Remember the photos of the fox? Well, she has a baby and I saw it for the first time yesterday. Way too cute but I really don't want them living under the deck!

We suspected there was something under there but we just thought we had another woodchuck like we did a few years ago. The dogs have lately been very interested in the hole, sniffing and inspecting it very closely. Now I know why. 

I'm not sure what to do about the situation as this is within the confines of our fenced yard. Do I just let them be and hope the dogs don't get to them? Call animal control and have them set a safe trap? I am thinking as the young kit gets older they will leave their cozy under-the-deck-den and go somewhere else. Suggestions?

We enjoyed our weekend at the shore and that update will be coming soon!

I really don't have much for you today, so you're going to get a little of this and a little of that. As you can see by the photo above, my view on the world has turned to green. The trees seemed to burst into full leaf nearly overnight with our rain last week. Sometimes they fill in gradually and it seems to take forever, but this year they seemed to need to make up for their later than usual start. My tomato plants that you can see have not been potted and put outside just yet because our temperatures this week are dipping into the mid 30's and flirting with frost. It's  kind of hard to imagine the pool opening that is scheduled for Monday.

I forgot to mention the hummingbirds. They arrived right on time about two weeks ago and somehow remembered exactly where the feeder was. The rose-breasted grosbeaks made an appearance at the front feeding station yesterday but I have yet to see them on the back yard feeder. They only stay a few days and then they are off to other locales. We had so many little white-throated sparrows a few weeks back singing their sweet little peabody, peabody, peabody song, but they too seem to have been just passing through. The cardinals are singing their heads off and I love having them around. I am still waiting for the wood thrush and now that the trees are fully out I shouldn't have to wait for long.

white-throated sparrow

The fox has been back. I always know when it's in the front yard because Bella goes nuts. She hates the fox. If this is one of the same foxes that visited  before and distributed mange amongst the dogs, then bark away Bella! If it is the same fox, it looks like it's a lot healthier than before. The only part that still looks bad is its tail.

Figgy is leafing out and has been living outside now for about a week. We did bring it into the garage last night because of the predicted (but didn't happen) frost. She seems to have survived the winter in the garage just fine. The leaves might not be quite large enough yet to cover Adam's parts but they are looking good.

RIght now the crabapples are about done and the dogwoods are blooming. Wisteria is also blooming right now and I need to take some photos of it just growing wild, hanging in the trees. I don't have any in my yard but down by Green Turtle I noticed some right by the road the other day. Azaleas are also pretty showy right now.

I mentioned last week that I was knitting on a project. It's a market bag for my sister. I made myself one and loved the pattern and the end result so much that I wanted to knit another one and asked her if she might like one. Here is what mine looks like, and you'll be glad to know I didn't have to take the other one completely out. It's coming along but I haven't worked on it very much in the past few days.

Now that the roof is finished there is a small project in the laundry room that is being tackled. We needed a new slop sink and faucet and are ripping out the old fake tile wallboard and having actual tile put in behind and around the sink. Then we'll need to paint the whole room, but I' m not so sure when that will get done. You see, our schedule for the next month or so is going to be a bit crazy.

On Friday we are leaving for the shore since we have had an invitation from friends Andy and Linda to visit them at their shore house for the weekend—dogs and all! The last time they invited us was the weekend that Sandy hit so we are hoping for good weather this time. They've only just finished the repairs on the house since the damage that was done by that superstorm and we'll be their first guests. I hope the dogs behave. We're anxious to see how water dog Bella likes the ocean.

Monday is pool opening day and Rick has business and an overnight stay in Philadelphia, returning home on Tuesday. Wednesday we have the pool deck and sides of the house being power washed. Thursday brings Rick's Mom (also named Lynn but without the "e") for her visit of ten days. After Lynn leaves on June 3rd we have a week and a half before we take off to Cartagena. So you can see what I mean! After that things calm down again until September and we can kick back a bit and enjoy the summer in full swing.

How's that for bits of this and that?