Walkabout in the yard

When I got home today, there was a happy dog waiting to greet me. He raced upstairs because he knows what comes next. So after I changed, I took the last of the raspberry iced tea in a big plastic cup, grabbed the camera and went outside.

This little planter greets me when I come out the mudroom door. It was my husband’s idea to line it with bark from a tree and I added bits of moss to fill in the spots. Then I filled it with torenia, a new annual I’m trying out.

After I took this photo, I turned around and saw this in the mudroom window.

A co-worker had given me this little decorative planter last year as a housewarming gift when we moved to the farm in Pennsylvania. I never did anything with it because the pots are so small and I have no idea what I’d put in them. So it sits here on a shelf in the mudroom. But wait, I said to myself. What’s that inside one of the little pot? My husband had to have put it in there because I surely did not.

I’ve often said that I would never post anything gross in my blog. I know some people do, but I just don’t feel that it’s necessary here. However, today I am posting something just a tad bit gross, so bear with me.

What you see in the little center pot is actually owl dung.

Why owl dung, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.

My husband enjoys bringing things he’s found home to show me. One day this winter, I came home from work and my husband proudly showed me something he’d found under the big tree where the owl sits every night. “Look closely at it,” he told me, “and you can see what it eats. There’s fur and bones, and . . .” And that’s when I cut him off.

“But it’s poop,” I said.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “You should put it in your blog thingy.”

I told him I don’t post gross things and thanked him for the interesting artifact and life went on. And I’d forgotten about the owl dung until I turned around just now and saw it.

I walked around the house and headed towards the backyard. I’m standing by the little back door to the mudroom. That’s the breakfast nook on my left. When we moved here, poison ivy was completely covering this entire wall. You could see some out the windows, but it was pretty bad. The girl that lived here prior to us had tried to get rid of the vines, until she got an awful spider bite on her arm.

Straight ahead is my husband’s little garden and to the right . . . that’s where the tree came down. You can see half the lilac bush and the other half is under the tree. Not much can be done at this point because it’s covered with poison ivy. But my husband did clear big branches of it from the patio.

Looking towards where I was just standing a moment ago. My husband put up a little umbrella at the edge of the patio. We eat out there sometimes.

In the garden, he’s got tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumber, peppers, sunflowers and nasturtiums.

I don’t know why about the nasturtiums but I’m glad about them, nonetheless.

Well, it’s time to go in now. I bet dinner is almost ready. Thanks, everyone, for joining me on my little walk.

Until next time, then . . .